@Stephen S.The man who owned this house before me did a very poor job of maintaining this boiler, and he allowed the air in the basement to be damp, which made it even worse.The 'bonnet' is the part in this picture that looks like a mushroom sitting on top of the boiler (this is not my image, i just google image searched it)http://www.merrypad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11...

@J Martin  - I'd love to invest locally where I live here in Fremont, but the numbers just don't make sense - at least not from a cash-flow perspective for somebody like me who isn't sitting on a boat-load of cash.

They do a lot of deals, but they don't like sitting behind a desk, sending postcards, taking calls, prescreening sellers, etc.

You'd better be sitting down when you open that bill...

No seller lists their property and wants it to sit on the market for 4 months.

If kitchen doesn't need a remodel or that isn't in the budget,  stage it like a sun room,  rec room,  library/sitting room. 

Land was cheap up here in the 50s and 60s so most of these properties sit on a lot that can accommodate 2500-3500 square-foot new construction

It's not like we have the cash sitting in the bank just waiting for her to make up her mind about it.

How much in liquid capital reserves do you have (most banks will want to see around 6 months of PITI payments sitting in the bank)

I sit around and figure out ways to make deals work, and there is almost always a way :-)