I personally think the under cabinet lighting would give the kitchen an awesome look, but I prefer the shorter cabinet above the sink.

Title research is almost as much art as science, and the serious nature of it shouldn't be taken lightly.

Tread a little lightly, as this may upset the loan broker.

Prudent lending practices, not just secondary market guidelines, require lease-options with rent credits allowed to be viewed in light of fair market rents being assessed and only amounts paid in excess of fair market rents be credited for financing purposes.While you can agree to rents of $500 per month and credit say $200 toward the purchase, lenders won't accept the credit unless the fair market rents is assessed at $300 a month or less.So, what you have with agreements drafted in such a manner are two parties who agree to a credit thinking that $200 is being credited, say for 24 months allowing $4,800 toward the purchase price of say a $50,000 house.

Not an after picture just yet, but here is a picture from a property we are working on right now: Still need to replace the cabinet hardware, add the pulls, install the faucet, install the floors, add appliances and install light fixtures...but it is looking better already!

We would also like to do some landscaping to make the property look better maintained than it's current state.I would love your take on how to prioritize this list balancing the need to not invest too much $$ now, but balancing what will give us an ROI on our improvement.

Working as an office assistant to a landscaper taught me how contractors work.

Underfunded reserves, special assessments, design review boards and landscape "police" have all left a bad taste in my mouth with various homes and condos I have owned.In 2011, I was working on a town home in a coastal community of San Diego county and butting heads with the HOA president.

Somewhere out there, somebody had a light turn on, they see a connection.

It is a retirement plan, at least part of it, and a light has been shed showing, (see below) that this is not enough to retire on, and still have the same standard of living that we enjoy now, albeit a modest one.To prepare for the sale of the house, it was going to take a long time to accomplish working full time.