Prudence is one of the 4 natural virtues, according to Aristotle.

Of course, I would make sure it fits in architecturally and looks like a natural continuation of my house.

You'll naturally get more up to speed as you move here and get to know the area better.

But remember I am an engineer and engineers are not typically risk takers by nature; we like hard data.Question #2 is to those of you experienced investors.

Please clarify "utilities", are you talking about water/sewer, electric, natural gas, oil, garbage/recycling, other?

It was natural for me -I started looking to buy property in college.  

These are listed for incredibly low prices, so I naturally raised an eyebrow at it not being sure if there was a catch or not.

It's not natural appreciation, it's forced appreciation.

Many banks offer low or no closing costs loans, and a low introductory rate for the first year or so (though personally, I am not that rate sensitive when it comes to a HELOC - it's always a lot cheaper than hard money or a credit card, and I don't use it for long term debit, so frankly I don't care all that much about the interest rate.

That's for people that are bad at math.I average putting $7,000 down on $250,000 properties (0.03%) that I take over in PHX AZ, I have some carrying costs naturally, and the existing loans are in the $180,000 range.