Hes been there other then yesterday , But I dont think he noticed really until yesterday I heard him talking with his girlfriend that I have a green thumb and about what I did to the garage so yes he does notice, it was only yestersday that he explained to me about easements and city ownership. I looked around other easements and its pritty noticeable and very well done I might aid. No other easement on our block looks as nice, I have a huge flowering butterflyweed, some coneflowers native switch and porcupine grass a HUGE brown eyed susan must be nearly five feet tall and some HUGE wild voilets that just grew there naturally. I will call the city and have them warn me ahead of time, I also got someone at our local nurshery who will take the plants if they need to be rescued.

@ lana_roma There is a lot of yellow journalism out there. You can do your own research and there have been several peer reviewed publications on yellow journalism. We do know that the number of stories that predict economic decline increase in frequency as the time between economic declines increases. In other words, if we don't have a significant housing decline this year we can guarantee that there will be more stories next year about the impending housing decline. The phenomenon has to do with the psychology of what sells and doesn't, and very little to do with what is right and what isn't. If you find a journalist or blogger who doesn't write articles that predict some calamity, give him some money because he isn't getting paid to write. As to the above - This [real estate] market continues to be driven by the FHA issuing and guaranteeing risky mortgages written by thinly capitalized non-banks There is very little reason to attack the FHA for making risky loans. If anything the opposite is true and FHA loans are predatory. FHA loans are profitable because the MIP (interest rate premium of about .85%) far exceeds the low down payment risk. FHA loans are no more exposed than any other loan. In default the Mortgage insurance kicks in and makes up the shortage of down payment, and the cost of doing this is much less than what is charged to consumers. Our current policies create a questionable base for higher home prices when we consider the low end of the market is driven by Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA all insuring 3.5% down payments from borrowers that often have a weak credit history First - Demand creates the base for higher home prices, to think otherwise is naive. Access to cheaper cash does help increase house prices but not linearly. Cheaper money means that for the same payment (monthly cash outflow) you can get a better house. This often leads to more demand which leads to higher prices. But arguing this is bad is just silly, it is like saying - the price of steak is going up because now more people can afford steak and we didn't anticipate this many people being able to afford steak. Which is exactly his point... Second - Many countries have some institutions that encourage home ownership because home ownership is something we should encourage. While we have taken a financial look in this thread there are many non financial benefits to communities from home ownership. The above programs do exactly what they were meant to do, encourage home ownership.

All the issues you raise - and many additional ones - should be negotiated with the other party and covered by your contract. These are clearly legal contract issues for negotiation and you need a negotiation strategy. It is not fair for you to get paid for one plan and have the builder benefit from it 20 times, but that may not be the position taken by the builder. You should also be concerned about your potential liability to multiple third part home buyers you have no contract with, which can vary from state to state. You need a reasonable attorney with subject matter familiarity and experience and good negotiation skills, as there are multiple issues and trade offs in this scenario.

Thanks. This is why I spoke of my lack of experience, being a suburbanite. Our DS (50) and family do live in the city, and he will be the landlord. We've had strange tenants in SFH, too. One alcoholic who was to be evicted the next morning turned on all the gas in the kitchen and lay down to die. The sherrif's oficers found her in the morning, hung over, but alive. The gas had leaked out of the old farmhouse. (Same woman had earlier slit her wrists in the bathtub.) I know there are hazards -- just asking about those peculiar to MFUs. I'd been concerned when we bought the vacation rental, too, but it turned out to be pretty easy, especially with guests we booked ourselves. Our bookings were almost always better guests than agency-booked people. I think that was because we'd become 'real people' to them before they arrived. Update: Today we cancelled the contract on this property. I was mistaken in thinking we could buy something and use 1031 escrow to renovate. I'd missed the difference from the way we purchased the condo twenty years ago: That seller did the renovations out of our escrow *before* the closing. Now we'll look for something to more fully use up the escrow and not plan on using taxed boot to improve it.