That applies in all areas of life, not just REI.

<<==>>“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.

I have a busy life as it is with the job, wife and small kids, so I need to start slow (or perhaps go crazy and dive deep, lol).

/ft. are updated and decorated in a style attractive to their market segment.

Location, sizes, styles, acreage, condition, views, external factors (busy roads, the dump, lake view, golf course, etc).

If you want to calculate taxes yourself it's pretty straight forward, add up the total millage for both Summer & Winter, Divide the SEV by 1000 then Multiply the two numbers for your annual taxes.Tom A already linked the State calculator which makes life really easy, but it's still nice to know what the numbers all mean and how to manually calculate this stuff.

My general counsel to those that ask is "buy in an area where you can make money", don't spend so much time worrying about wether it's the neighborhood that you love, or the style of home your intrigued by.

Well that makes me feel like i just wasted 4 hours of my life.

Does the cost have to be out of my pocket to depreciate it over its life?

That may or may not be a new build, likely not.The beauty of buying the existing older home is that your inspection will uncover needed repair items and life expectancies of your capital items.