[fireant911]

The deal is done!!!
We submitted an offer on 02 February and closed on the property this evening. During this journey we looked at several properties. The first property we submitted a bid on we did not get (great location however it needed about $26K of work - supposedly we were outbid though it just recently re-appeared on the market this week...). Our second 'sight-seeing' visit involved looking at 12 different potential candidates. At the conclusion of this visitation we arrived at four real prospects. Of those four prospects, one quickly rose to the top using a derivation of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tool I developed. Interestingly, my most favorite choice fell to the bottom of the list when analyzed with the QFD concept. The house we closed on today is wonderful although the previous tenants were apparently disgruntled when leaving as the jacuzzi was removed, the HVAC wires were all cut as were the refrigerant lines (they intended to take this with them), and the outside water faucets were kicked off in spite. We will be in 'high cotton' after investing about $5K.

The property is just outside of Huntsville in a very rural setting (cow pastures in front of and behind the house). We have already met the neighbors and all is good. The HUD process is a bit frustrating at times yet, in the end, it worked out extremely well for us. Key take-aways - get a thorough inspection!!! Our inspector was extremely anal and spent five hours on site.