Unless the landlord is really cheap and willing to sacrifice vacancy time for cheaper labor/materials cost, then a professional PM should be hiring professional crews to do the work...people where that task is their main job....not some side job that they can do when they get a chance...hell, I can do thatSo....you pay for vacancy time....or you pay for a more professional crew to do it faster...your choice.I'd be shopping for a new PM...... it may be even more important to find a new one BEFORE you go out of country since once you aren't around the current one may get even worse and then you will be trying to deal with issues or find a new one while you are gone.

If there’s equity, and all lien holders can get a full payoff - you have more leverage to ask the bank to postpone the auction to get the bank paid in full.If underwater, going down the route of attempting a short sale can take much longer and the lenders may not be as willing if there is an auction right around the corner.. for example, property must be listed in MLS, homeowners must complete full financial package for lender, bank must complete an appraisal, your offer needs to be reviewed by the bank, etc.Completing a sale right before an auction can definitely be done - and we do it all the time - but I guess it just depends on the specific situation.

It is a quick way to call BS on the broker's package or quickly sniff out a deal. 

Anyone who's packaged up said system in pretty presentation booklets and has tiered prices is also lying to you.

Especially their basic package, a lot of that info will show up in a title report or NHD so they don't offer a ton of value there. 

I like vinyl planks for the floors because they’re durable (if you use good material) and waterproof.

The likely options are a package deal for all three properties.Have you dealt with this?  

I'd love to stay in touch and maybe we can even recommend materials to each other that we find useful while educating ourselves.

The husband is a “handy-man” and would like to do the repairs himself and for me to reimburse him for the materials.

Plus the trades are aging fast and many will retire and we have a generation of college kids come up who can't tell a 2x4 from a 2x8.Sub 300k inventory (in our market) is the lowest and limited to existing homes - the cost of land, materials and labor force builders into the 400-600 range, so starter homes are like bit-coin: finite supply.Wrapping it all up I dont believe we will see an economic slow down have significant impact on the RE markets - at least certainly not to the tune for 2008.