I'm in the middle of a refinance on my home and will have some cash in the near future.

Renovation takes time, hurts occupancy, and if certain things (like kitchen cabinets) are in the middle of their life there's no need to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

I am not finding the middle ground or investors.

@Ned Carey  were I learned the notification rule .. was  we bought the middle of a new age church facility up in the Northern CA mountains. 

If he wants to have total control over his retirement funds instead of going through a middle man for every investment and every transaction then he may want to explore Checkbook IRA. 

Starting this morning I plan to call the number listed on Zillow for all "for rent" properties in a zipcode ,two zip codes being called today, and ask if the owner might be willing to sell the listed property; and, if not ask if they have any other properties they might be interested in selling.

Yesterday morning got my first offer accepted and last night I went to the first RE Investing Association meeting.

I called them early Monday morning and could only get a sales guy since the customer service people weren't there yet.

As long as nothing surprising pops up towards the end, we should be under budget.New Deck:Floors sanded down:Basement freshly painted and carpeted:Master bedroom in basementAnd just a pic I snapped one morning from the from the deck.

Meet an inspector in the middle of the afternoon?