Also, I would go with 46-in min. deck and 48-in if you have the storage space. Really does make a difference in mowing time and allows trimming next to edgings much easier since the deck sticks out beyond the wheels. Those brands offer relatively new 46-in 2-blade deck if it's the number of blades you're concerned about....3-blade on the 48-in. size.

I bought 1 new tire due to sidewall puncture. 195/65/15. Got a lowly prime well p830? For $43. Installed, it was 63 out the door. Yes, it is round and black. Car had 8k miles at 1 yr. 8/32 tread depth on oem tire. New was 11/32

**He said the reason is they can't honor the tread wear warranty; i.e., 70 K when the tire wears out at 45 K.** I don't understand this sentence. Tires wearing in the center is generally an indication of over inflation. Tire warranty's often times aren't worth a lot under normal circumstances. For example, a tire has a 40k mile warranty. They wear out at 30k and you go in to claim your warranty. They say you got 75% of the use of the tires so you're entitled to a 25% discount on a new set. List price for your tires when you bought them was $100 each. The store sells them all day including the set they sold to you for $75 each, but your discount is calculated from the list price. So, your warranty has a net worth of zero at that point in this example. If you got more miles than that, the normal price of the tire is a better deal than the warranty price. Less miles than that and the warranty might be worth a few bucks but not much. The greater the difference between the list price and what the store sold them to you for, the less the warranty is worth. Tire manufacturers continually change tire designs. A particular tire becoming obsolete is not an indication that it was a good, bad or somewhere in between quality tire. Just means they don't make that one anymore. jmo

They automatically send us MLS listings each day in the area and price range we are interested in. Otherwise, they are not involved in our home search. Did they set this up or did you? Every (real estate) site I've been to has an email feature where you put your search options in and can get email updates as they come on. I don't know what the difference is between the two as I've never had an agent sign me up. Since it sounds like the agents are a bit lazy, you might think to start doing your own searching using the various sites. Here in NJ I've had different results with different sites, they all don't seem to pick up the same listings. Between the 4 or 5 sites I'm signed up at, I have a pretty good variety of houses. I agree with dabunch, and have also lost houses due to an agent that is too laid back. Last year I had about 20 houses I was interested in, I emailed them to the person I was going to use, they never replied. A few weeks later I finally decided to find a different agent, the houses I'd picked were gone. Do you all think our realtors don't want to work with us anymore but are too nice to say? We actually haven't had a signed contract for the last 9 months but they know we will use them in completing a transaction. They haven't said anything negative to us, but they are real Texas gentlemen so who knows. BTW, we referred our son to them and he just bought a starter home from them ($155,000) after seeing 5 other houses. You realtors out there and others, what do you think? Thanks. I don't know what to think about the agents but since there are 2 of them, there is no reason that you should be left waiting, and with what you are saying, I actually wonder if they dragged their feet on putting offers in for you. It almost sounds like they don't think you are serious about buying. You can go 2 ways, have a talk with them and tell them that you are really ready to spend your money and don't want to lose a house and be honest about them being late, not returning phone calls or just ditch them and move on. If you do sign up at a few sites, you might get an email from one of the agents. If so, establish an email relationship, it's actually what I've done. Some agents are wonderful about returning emails while some can't be bothered. I like email because I can email them the MLS numbers that I would like to look at, and it's in writing. I also use the favorites feature on the sites, the Remax site allows me to make folders to save houses to; one is called appointments. One agent I had was great about watching that folder, she knew when I was going to be ready to go out by what I had saved.