If you buy the expensive kitchen cabinets , and the contractor accidently drops a $900 section .

She said nothing about buying it before sale.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Personally, I'd never buy the biggest house, or the most expensive house on the street.

If I am buying from you, and you plan to do some work on my purchase AFTER the closing, I will not mind, as long as you're going to do it well.

Buy more investment properties? 

As long you can provide a reasonable story and supporting docs to persuade the underwriter that you are buying this house in this state as your main primary house.

TLDR: If you're in year 4 of 10 and pay the mortgage off, your payoff balance will be adjusted to reflect the cost of buying a gov't bond that will produce the equivalent amount of dividend payments for the remaining 6 years (in other words, one way or another, the lender is absolutely going to get their 10 years of payments).

We’d like to assemble a real estate portfolio over the years, and would consider buying a rental property whilst living in our current home.I’m looking for any creative ideas or suggestions given our circumstances.

You could also buy a traditional property and hire a property manager, but in this scenario you end up paying property manager fees (and likely higher-than-you-like financing costs to replace the debt from your condos).