Even though the severity of these issues may be very minor, it's a good bargaining chip for you to use.I had a house where my inspector found about 2 square inches of mold on the garage ceiling (dry wall, would have cost $100 to cut out and patch) and because of this I got the bank to drop $7k off the sales price immediately.I agree with Justin, give a big earnest money check, on that house I'd go $10k.

There are certain areas and HOA's that are hurting really bad and who can't afford to cover the monthly expenses and are cutting back anything they can since a special assessment isn't going to due much since they would be bleeding the paying homeowners dry.

Daniel,I looked at 75 to 100 houses before I pulled the trigger on my first deal.

Instead, they are just triggering ANOTHER PART of the contract that deals with this particular circumstance.

All of my Stop Losses triggered yesterday (set at 10%) and liquidated my stock holdings.I'm not a conspiracy nut but someone, somewhere, made a lot of money off this 'glitch' and I believe it was manipulation, pure and simple.As one commentator noted, this will NOT build confidence in your average retail investor, ME INCLUDED.Louis Rukeyser once noted that the best investment he ever made was his Rolls Royce, because the government couldn't tax his enjoyment of it.

I look at property often but have not been able to pull the trigger on any.

It will either work or it won't and I like the cut and dry nature of it being about the numbers!

If this isn't for you then you may consider hiring an experienced investor that knows the local market to analyze a deal for you before you pull the trigger on it.

I actually think it is the middle class people who are sucking the country dry.

However, if you're in over $20,000 on courses and seminars (I've met some) and you still haven't pulled the trigger on a single property, then you're just fooling yourself.