$600 billion, not $600 million, although there was such a typo in the Wall Street Journal,The Fed buys bonds, which creates a shortage of bonds relative to all the cash out there that would otherwsie be invested in bonds, which creates excess liquidity since that cash needs to be invested elsewhere.

I have a specific deal going, and my assignment fee will only be $5,000 so it's not excessive, and the retail buyers would be getting a house with at least $10K of equity in it, so I know there won't be appraisal problems.If a simple Assignment of Contract will not work, has anyone ever heard of filing an Affadavit (or Memorandum) of Contract with the local county clerk, and then invoicing the seller for "Release of Equitable Interest" or "Release of Contract"?

Wipe up any excess with another napkin.

Obviously it rains a lot here and you can definitely smell the moisture smell when you first walk in.

It is in a very good location (near the beach) but it is a great deal of trouble.The electrical system is working but very old, and underpowered.The water supply is a mix of all kinds of improvisations, but the basis is galvanized pipe, which of course is a ***** to work on.The drainage is also a mix of old and new, but whenever I work on some of the old stuff I usually get unpleasant surprises.For the roof, a contractor told me he could not give me a fair estimate to replace it because he did not know what 'surprises' he might find when he took the roof off, since the house was so old.For the siding and windows, I've been hustling around repairing moisture leaks for years, and I seem to be catching up on them.For the framing, who knows?

Below are some generalizations about locations and ongoing maintenance costs: Older properties require more maintenance than newer properties.Composition roofs require more maintenance than tile roofs.Properties in climates with hard freezes require more maintenance than properties in milder climates.Properties in locations with a lot of moisture require more maintenance than properties in dryer climates.Wood siding requires more maintenance than aluminum or stucco siding.Properties with lush vegetation require more maintenance than properties with little or no vegetation.SummaryWith hold times in the 10+ year range, you need to think of the location long term.

In my example on the duplex in Texas, I am paying down the loan with EXCESS cash flow from my tenants.  

We dont rent by the room but I think if we did we have an excessive use clause for water that i pont out on move in that I would still keep.

I didn't get mine until age 31 but then again I spent a couple years at grad school in my 20's and I also live in an area where the average house costs in excess of $600k so ownership is tough for a young, single earner (thank God I got married eventually!).

:D ...fee schedules vary from lender to lender (FHA is explicit on allowable fees, and I would need to know more about the project to determine excessiveness).