When you talk about big ticket items - also look into mechanicals, electricals and other items that aren't quite visible to the eye right away.

Second thread posting here (thanks so much for the responses in advance everyone).I am hoping to get some advice on I can apply my mechanical engineering degree that I am about to get in a couple of weeks to Scott Trench's philosophy.

My RE is paying for my son's college at San Diego State and he will be a mechanical engineer in 2 years.  

Whether you have your loans out through private/hard money, cash or other financing mechanisms where your taxes and insurance are not escrowed. 

He told me to obtain a mechanical permit and building safety inspection for the heater and have a licensed contractor conduct the work per California state law. 

You need to have pretty high lines of credit, a lot of cards or a really cheap rehab to make it work, and you need to have a mechanism to get the card paid off before the interest kicked in.

I have a mechanic between me and my car problems, I don;t go in and start ripping out bolts to see if I can figure it out.

Maybe I'm not up to speed with the mechanics of a HELOC.

The interior layouts are pretty much all the same.I'm not quite done with inspections yet, so I don't know the condition of the electrical and mechanicals, but I do know the that the interiors all need updating (floors, cabinets, counters, sinks, paint, etc.)The problem is is that I'm out of state.

He called me last night and mentioned the bank wanted me to write up a mechanics lien disclosure or something of the sort that the seller has to sign before closing.