My brother is a vet, when he got out of vet school he was broke. his clinic was set up and financed in what they call blue sky financing, can be structured several ways, most have a minimal down and payments but take a percent of gross for several years.

We don't live in a cold climate and these units have good centralized heating, so our tenants tend to use the fireplaces minimally, if at all.

In addition, if something comes up you are stuck with the legal fees to fight a title claim because you didn't buy the policy.You may think the risk is minimal but things happen all the time.

How long with this up cycle last, and what will indicate it is peaking?

Seller has indicated that he has not had any issues with the housing authority and that money is debited to the checking account.

My investor/backer though is more interested in finding two family houses at extremely low prices & needing minimal work.

My research of the GA Condo Act indicates the exact opposite (that windows are responsibility of POA).I called my attorney to get his input, but believe it or not it turns out he is on retainer with my POA so he couldnt talk to me due to conflict of interest.

In a D class neighborhood or one star I prefer not to buy parks that are really bad, they usually require too much time and effort up front to get them to minimal standards.

He knows the ins and outs of each neighborhood and I'm sure can execute things quickly to get them done with minimal loss.

Remember, in these old houses, lumber was milled locally, in many cases on-site, and frequently by hand, so why would you invest effort to mill a support pier that will be unseen in the basement when it makes no difference to its function.As Brian indicated, houses were built experientially back in {pre}Victorian era and lumber was not graded as it is today - mind you, much of the lumber was of a far higher quality than what we harvest these days.The key thing to look at is whether these unmilled piers are set directly in the soil or if a footing (likely stone, but possibly concrete) was put underneath it.