Have all your rehab costs set with your purchase price and you should have enough room to drop your asking price if needed to where it would sell quickly.If there isnt enough room to do this, your cutting yourself too close and dont buy it.

Along the lines of the IRAs...I'm assuming the income limits that are in place which have kept me from being able to contribute to IRAs for the past couple years would make this avenue unavailable to me (unless I can cut my AGI with enough mortgage interest to get below the income thresholds).

I did that several times as I adjust the level up and down, by looking at the tree roots and seeing where I can dig and where I have to cut into the tree roots.

How is a local buyer going to come in and cut through the contract with that he has.

If you are going to advertise on BP, you have to pay for the privilege.And a thinly veiled "wondering if you would be interested in buying my book" post isn't going to cut it.

You have to be OK not getting that specific house, but for sure cuts the crap of the counter counter counter madness.

Make some small sacrifices to kill your credit card debt and you will be so happy you did after you are cutting up cards and living without all this debt lingering over head.

The buyer of a 45 year old 3/1 around here isnt going to care what the shingles and gutters look like as long as they dont stand out, so you can cut some corners on that stuff.

In order to be nicer I suggest:- show property extremely clean, yard grass cut well, bushes/trees trimmed ($400)- good paint job ($1000)- scratch and dent stainless steel appliances (they are a wow factor) ($600)- living area no carpet...

If you go the route of un-licensed contractors and short-cuts, and do a lot of rehab, then the inspectors will find out about you in a bad way.