We have been renting up until now and with the growing family we are thinking of buying a home.

Its a basement apartment in a 1958 built triplex. natural light is limited. walls are light gray and trim is white. floor is concrete and a darker grey.

Most banks are pretty tight when it comes to forced appreciation even though it's natural for a property that's been renovated to command better rents.Even some portfolio lenders require a 12 month seasoning to use the appraised value. 

Podcasters...for anyone breaking even or actually making money off your (real estate related) podcast, I'm wondering if you can point me to ideas on how best to grow number of listeners, if and when to add advertising, and generally how many downloads/listeners you achieved before breaking even? 

This business is guaranteed as long as you are willing to go though the growing pains.

It is important for you to be comfortable with the asset you are purchasing, then have your PM manage and grow that for you.  

Natural appreciation should be the butter, not the bread of your profits. 

I’m looking for scalable solutions as we grow our portfolio.

My biggest concern is the growing lack of good domestic NPL inventory.

Would it be better to buy a fixed house to live in it and grow equity while I graduate?