Dreams of savings down the road go away when they factor in the additional mortgage cost created by that extra upfront cost.When I was still building in Northern Idaho and put in energy efficient devices advertising them was a negative and several asked if I would take out the non traditional high efficiency tankless hot water heating system.I build to green certification standards but I am  not willing to pay the inspector for certifying them green especially since he had to approve the plans for the homes to be built.I wish you much luck and support your intent but the reality, at least in my experience, is people are willing to talk about being green but won't pay extra or go out of there way to be green if there is even the slightest hindrance to their life style.  

However, you also put in a real expensive whole house tankless water heater which including new electrical wiring, new copper lines, new manifold, permits, gas venting etc...cost $3000. 

If your husband's IRA is a ROTH, you can pull out 5-yr old money he put in.  

For a flip, if you put in significant improvements, the assessor WILL take that into account.  

We won't have that kind of luck twice, I'm sure ;-)We have been talking about investing in more real estate for a few years but we were distracted by having babies. 

I bought 3 houses around that time: one was a flip that failed and I immediately converted to a profitable rental, the second was strictly as a rental, and the third was a move-in rehab for a later sale.Then I wanted to get into multi-family, but got distracted and opened up a small retail space - which pretty much wrecked me.

In my next ad I want to put in some client reviews from my zillow page as well.

The name of the game is 'focus' and dont let anything distract you...

You definitely need to be able to put in the long days, work hard, and stay focused to make it in this business.

Dave, the rents are indeed month to month so this could explain, and yes, I will need to see every single corner of the house and intend to do so... my question was if there is a possible clause that can be put in the offer to ensure it or if I just should not put any formal offer in writting unless I have seen everything..