sparksals, I do not have PMI, that is different. I am only talking about an escrow account. We have a first time home owners mortgage that required us to pay hardly any down payment. It is not a sally may mortgage. We get the interest from our escrow account. Every year the bank that holds the account for the mortgage provider sends us a statement. We can see how much interest we get and where our money has gone. I am surprised to learn that other escrow accounts are not like this! I assume it is because our mortgage anticipated that we are lower income and that maybe we will have a harder time trying to save so it forces your to set up an savings account by calling it an escrow account. We are not low income however we did not have much money to put down on the house when we purchased it. Anyways, I like the way our escrow account works and do not mind having it. My taxes our pretty low here so my escrow is about 1 grand. I don't have that much money in it. I can see how people that pay more money would be worried about fraud.

Our house appraisal is running late. Maybe tomorrow... We have/had equity in our house too but California was hit hard by the housing crunch. I have no idea what is going on right now, other than housing has just started going up faster in value than we could possibly make from money in the bank. Finally an upturn. We locked in at 4%, a decent interest rate for investment property. The good news is the seller came home and has agreed to split the difference with us on the duplex's low appraisal. That means around $700. more down for us (25% down). Much better than us eating the whole difference. The hot water heaters have yet to be double strapped and she is to have a service man out to check and repair one oven. She agreed to do both. We signed more papers and it's moving forward once again. Meanwhile, no one is watering anything at the duplex and it's turning brown fast. I left water running on the bush shown in the photo this afternoon and Rob will run past and turn it off on his way home. The red leaves are now crispy. The bush goes up the sidewalk toward the rear unit and is much larger than the photo shows. Our realtor has worked her butt off for us. She is hungry! Most of the realtors and mortgage brokers around here have spent the past few years living off of their credit. Just a few years ago (2005), that duplex appraised at $500,000. Ouch! Still, there have been lost papers and documents on the mortgage lenders end. Glad we have the originals.

It is not unusual to see insulation on the inside of the ductwork and yes i is sprayed with a sealer. It is still rough as compared to the metal and will attract and hold more dust. It is also harder to clean when the time arises.

If you are in a hurry you should have already selected your design team and they should have done the measuring in one or two visits with a minimum of personal interaction with the original owners. This is a very stressful and emotional time for retiring couples. It is best for professionals to be in the house instead of the new buyers. When I must interact with the owners I always find a way to show respect for their house and pretend there will be few changes and that's not always easy. In my experience the real estate agents are more concerned with having to be at the house when you are there. They often act like I am costing them money, as if I should care; I'm working for the new owner and I can usually get the information I need in a few hours so I have no sympathy for them. They always take my card to schmooze me but I never get a call.