Excellent history with this bank and they have owned the house next door to mine for 3 years so they are not strangers to reality.

In all reality to me the question is what value does the listing agent bring.

Right now, there's a toilet and sink in a corner, but no walls/door, etc.

Talk about knowing the person.On top of the garbage disposal, tenant requested GFCI be installed around the kitchen sink.

All too often people like to give off the impression that they are rich when in reality they're up to their eyeballs in debt!

I assume they're basing their asking prices on their mortgage payments, rather than the market reality.

but, but....what if the loch ness monster jumps out of the sink and splashes water on the outlets....imagine what would happen if they are not GFCI?

However you can get a degree in teaching or accounting and then get a job as a teacher or an accountant and that works fine.What you need to do at this point is like others suggested, check your credit, if there is stuff to clean up do it now, if there is nothing you can establish a few credit cards that will be a year old by the time you are ready to buy.The next thing you need to do is save some money, If you are going to buy 100k house then $5000 just use the 5% saving so that when the time rolls around you are ready with credit, funds and a job.I would caution you against coborrowering with your parents- Its wonderful to have great parents but the reality is alot of times parents cosign for kids and things happen down the road and the parents credit gets ruined so if possible you want to stay away from that and its great to say I did it on my own.

After a lot of advice from bigger pockets (thanks JScott) I put together a spreadsheet of all my finish materials and item numbers/prices for each (cabinets, sinks, countertops, doors, faucets, etc.) all the way down to outlets, light switches and smoke detectors.

Andy, for a garage conversion to be legal here in CA, the builder would need to construct a carport, you need to check if your area has the same rule or simply just pull the previous permits from the city for your subject property.As to the $5k I estimated, I can do a full gut bathroom job with new toilet, new tub, new sink and vanity, new plumbing fixture, new light fixture, new travertine installed on walls of shower, new bath glass door enclosure, and new bath plumbing fixtures all for $3k.