Congrats on your new goals and good luck!

My main goal is to get the new house at a monthly bill of around $900.  

Hey, you have to have dreams, in order to make goals and take action!

My goals is to refinance and pay them off in 18-24 months.As you will read that is 100% financing which I never thought could happen but it did on this one.

Without having a portfolio of rentals, I would not have learned what works well for me and my goals.  

My long term goal is buy and hold.

Especially if you have mature trees on the property, you'd want to inspect lines that were that age if you were keeping the property.If sewer line problems were a common occurrence in the neighborhood and having had them checked could be used as a selling feature, great.In other words, no, don't do it.

. :-) My goal is to buy my first property in either of these two markets.

It depends on your goal and objectives.

After devoting 80+ hours weekly and never feeling free of school responsibilities I chose not to return but met my goal to earn a small pension when I turn 62.