I pulled the sales comps for that subdivision, which suggest the property's market value is $120,000 give or take.

I too have been learning and reducing debt for the past year and am ready to pull the trigger.  

If you are gutting kitchens & bathrooms, opening up walls, altering the floorplan, relocating or otherwise upgrading plumbing and electric, and then the plan is to immediately flip the property and you don't wish to get sued into oblivion after the sale if anything should go wrong, then yes, pull permits and used a licensed, bonded general contractor.If on the other hand this is your personal residence and you just want to paint, change some trim and flooring, and freshen up the bathrooms and kitchen without gutting or moving stuff around, then you may be ok without permits.There are many shades of gray between those scenarios too ...

I don't know how much it's worth, but it doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of room to pull equity out.

What are the obligations of a California SFH family of owners who rent the attic (which is one big finished bedroom with private bath) out to a single man who went missing the 2nd of the current month we now find out he was pulled out of his rental car and extradited from California to New York on a warrant out for his arrest for a DUI accident that happened 2 years ago.Details of the accident not that have a keen interest but for what its worth will share his story: victim, a retired man, who sustained a brain injury 2 yrs ago from that incident, has apparently taken the turn for the worst and decided to press new charges for new medical costs and decline in mobility/quality of life, stress, anxiety etc for the accident 2 yrs ago which insurance paid out but victim wants the settlement amount (175k) a second time over? 

Combined we pull in about 53k a year homed are going for 800k + for a decent home, nicer homes easily going for 1 mil.

I have friends that pull in $400k/yr and will be working into their late 60's.

You can pull an equity line of credit to have cash to buy other properties or invest in other things.

Giving your good folks a little recognition goes a long way.I would suggest your friend ID a way he can help his LL simply (like trash mgt- pull out boxes that absolutely fill dumpsters to be recycled, parking lot pick-up, etc) in exchange for a discount.  

Or the fact that there's just something inherently off with the unit thats preventing people from pulling the trigger.I recently had a house that I got the same great reviews during the walk thru.