I am humble enough to know that I MAY lack the necessary communication skills.

That second option Is in most cases unnecessary, the truth is most of your contractor work will be paid once the job is completed and only for the expensive jobs will you have to pay partially upfront so their shouldn’t be too much of an issue having your owner pay for a job even if there is a lag time on communication and they live far.

HOA prevent me from painting my house all black or all red.

I said "No Paypal" and all that because it removes an element of control from me and places it in the hands of the tenant, or so I thought.Thanks or all the replies!

I'm wondering how this all went down without something unethical taking place...For your reference and anyone else's here, NAR Code of Ethics states:When an opinion of value is formed for a member of the public the opinion shall include the following:-identification of the subject property-date prepared-defined value or price-limiting conditions, including statements of purpose(s) and intended user(s)-any present or contemplated interest, including the possibility of representing the seller/landlord or buyers/tenants-basis for the opinion, including applicable market data-if the opinion is not an appraisal, a statement to that effect-disclosure of whether and when a physical inspection of the property's exterior was conducted-disclosure of whether and when a physical inspection of the property's interior was conducted-disclosure of whether the REALTOR® has any conflicts of interest (Amended 1/14)Also "REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations."

These are my first communications with the guest, so I don’t have any canned responses yet.  

Excellent communication is so key!

Now he (the buyer’s agent) is not communicating at all.

This impacted communication and I believe they became complacent or too busy to care about the property.

If you can put the cash to use someplace else, and the refi payments would still fit the budget, I'd say fine.However, if you put 10% down, then brought it up to 20% (to buy out PMI), plus rehab expense, will the property appraise at a number you can pull out most or all of your cash, and still be at a monthly you can live with?