Reply #6: Bubble bursting is why I posted,sir.

[Dora]

I'd love to find a ready & perfect house, but I'm keeping my mind open to all possibilities. It's a crazy market here in Austin. It's hot and soft all at the same time - a buyer's market in some areas, and a seller's market in others.

We are blessed with having a close friend who is a contractor. BUT he is too busy this week for me to bounce these kind of questions off of him, which is why I turned to the collective expertise of DU's DIY room.

I'll know more when I can finally get inside the property and get a look at it with my own eyes. Our agent wouldn't let us in until we submitted our app for preapproval - which I did successfully this morning. I hope to see the property tomorrow or this weekend.

All the exterior lines are square to the eye, there's no water collection or flow-through on the property (hilltop), slab foundation, 1967 construction, 4-sides brick veneer with no cracking. Our tastes are frugal with an eye on function and longevity, not design trends. We would probably carpet 2 bedrooms, and do wood or cork in the rest of the house, possibly true linoleum in the kitchen. I know that labor is one of the biggest costs of contracting out this kind of work. We are lucky enough to have some flexibility in terms of how much we decide to use as a down, how much to hold back for updating. The available budget for remodeling could flex to +/- $60K. I'd like to be able to put away a chunk of money into an IRA when all is said and done, which is why I cited $40K as a budget.

Thanks for the input. If you have other thoughts to add, I'd like to hear them.