We strive to make things as clean as possible.Today and tomorrow our landscaper and do everything guy will be at the house doing a number of things including: power washing concrete areas that need it, installing like fixtures, putting mulch beds down, and patching concrete where needed on the front patio.

By cutting my down payment requirements in half from the 30% I had been paying to 15% it would seem that my buying power has just doubled.

Advising tenants to keep faucets on a slow drip overnight if temps get very cold is a good idea, and opening up cabinet doors to let the heat circulate to pipes can help as well.One thing to think about with winterizing is that it really is a pretty simple process, but will help you avoid water damage to vacant properties...even if you intend to keep the heat on, a winter storm with high winds or heavy snowfall can knock out the power and then you end up with NO heat at all.

It is a very operational business, and we are not setup to run that efficiently man-power-wise. 

But somebody)Your house's roof and exterior walls could all be made of this:Solar power and technology on your **roof** could be SO 2015 by 2035.  

It looked like they had a very efficient setup, combination erector set / ikea.Most/all of the core connections for power, water, waste, etc routed through a floor/ceiling section with all the walls and other fixtures loaded on top so they could transport two full sections per truckload.Another interesting factoid sheet:http://www.constructionglobal.com/majorprojects/79... 

This is how we keep a less then 2% eviction rate on over 400 managed homes.Not saying all owners are like this, we get some very smart people that understand the power of leverage and use of teams like property managers, Lawyers, Agents, Lisc vendors all to make their business model run efficiently.

What a powerful and inspiring post!

This reduced commission encourages the agent to not accept low offers and allows them to share in the disappointment.PS - It would be twice as powerful if I (as a seller) paid the buyer's agent in the same way.

The 1031's a pretty powerful tool to use once you get a good understanding of it.