If so, I imagine the NET rent will impact your debt/income ratio (either positively if you are renting a place to live for less than you are renting your house or vice versa).

I imagine you could reverse engineer the process, think like a cash buyer, make calls to title companies as if you are a cash buyer to qualify them.

Everyone thanks for the replies.For me the landlords I list and sell property for operate differently.Tenants talk and it can be a good or a bad thing.The clients I have would have this fixed or being worked on within 24 hours to 48 hours max.They like to be ultra responsive to tenants and take care of issues right away.Tenants that have been somewhere awhile usually are happy with the land lord.The potential tenants will go around and ask other tenants how responsive the landlord is to issues that come up.If the tenants say "the landlord gets around to it eventually but I have to hound him" is not good.If the tenants say "the landlord listens to requests and is responsive and cares about his buildings" that makes the potential tenant feel good.If a potential tenant isn't asking these questions it's a bad sign of a tenant trying to live anywhere.So if it was me I can't imagine being in front of a judge and saying "your honor I was told about the ceiling falling down and water damage and was given photos but I did nothing to fix it for 5 days"I do feel for the landlord to an extent.I see some landlords keep patching instead of correctly fixing the problem.Do it right the first time.As long as the work is completed correctly there will not be an issue.I won't have to get involved unless I am forced to.

And if I can't do it with my crew (who are as reliable as any contractors I've ever met), I imagine 99% of other investors probably shouldn't either.Also, as James pointed out, I'm pretty sure that many of us investors can get finishing materials as cheaply as our contractors.

2) I imagine this document is what people fight when housing prices are really dropping but Uncle Sam still wants more money.

I worked in the internet marketing space for years and I can only imagine the amount of time and money you've invested into this site.Great work Josh!

Could you imagine hiring a lawyer, and having them only tell you bits and pieces of important information on a case.

If you have little time now, imagine what you would do if you owned a rental that had issues going on, maybe a tenant eviction, and the R.E. bills but no income from it.

Peter,You can call the Cobb County Development Office to ask if they have the CO on file -- http://comdev.cobbcountyga.gov/inspections.htm.Unless the property was flooded or in need of major repairs (it doesn't look like either from the pictures), I can't imagine that you'll need to get a new CO.

I would imagine I would not need it until I closed but I am just curious as to the timing.