what size of properties are you looking at? 

I particularly like the U.S. census bureau data because it covers most of the things that I like to look at when evaluating markets, such as population growth, median household income, total market size, etc.The methodology is trickier.

I made on offer on a couple houses where each house had almost exact comps (age, size, type, etc) and even on the same street (as well as other supporting comps within 1/2 mile) that were sold for $40K below the listing price of my properties.

Your mom's plan sounds reasonable to me - it is a low-cost way to pay your dad what is due to him.If you think your mom does not need such a large house, she may wish to consider down-sizing to a smaller home.

The quickest way to questimate the size of the house is to "walk" it and draw it out on a sheet of paper.

In Wisconsin code we go by a number on a chart called "predicted depth of frost" and that's at 5' 3".

Shadowstats is now reporting the real unemployment rate near 23% per the chart here:Real Unemployment RateTo my surprise the number is still inching up a bit.

Lots of people try to "Up Advertise" their units in terms of size and renovations.

I would like to add that something to keep in mind is variability in dimensional lumber sizes when planning repairs.

Depending on the size of your team, you're generally looking at 4 - 6 weeks worth of work.