I've been able to reduce subcontractor scopes significantly and drive specs below $70 for one off construction (300k townhouses to give an idea of finish level).A willingness to make big pallet purchases on material well in advance of build can help as well, liquidation sales , auctions, and Craig's List are your friends here.

That may be true from banks who place that "overlay," to reduce their expose to inexperienced  landlords however FHA and VA  don't actually require that so you may need to find a lender who does not have that overlay requirement.

As long as your other partner doesn't look at you as a credit risk, you're reducing the risk placed on him by releasing funds to you, disproportionate of your 50% ownership.

You can use far smaller wire to run 220v implements thus reducing the cost of materials to get 2,200 watts of power to the source

Maybe as Introduced, Not as Passed"The National Association of Realtors said that the energy bill, as introduced, may have caused some problems for sellers of existing homes.Section 204 of the bill authorizes the Department of Energy to create a building energy labeling program to "enable and encourage knowledge about building energy performance by owners and occupants and to inform efforts to reduce energy consumption nationwide."

Doesn't matter if its brand new or 100 years old, people can do the same damage.So, yes, you can reasonably expect to have somewhat reduced capital item costs (furnaces, roofs, and the like are, for tax purposes, capital items, not maintenance) for some period of time.

I believe a national policy to reduce our trade deficit such as a goal for energy independence (I pushed for this long before Romney put this as his plan and even though I don't believe he has a good understanding on how our monetary system operate I believe this plan on energy independence is vital) and other business growth plans such flattening the tax code in order to promote focus on business not tax planning.

There are always ways to reduce the bad parts of the job and spend your effort on the good parts.

All I had to agree to was whatever the state said as far as child support (which you can't reduce in a prenup anyway) and 2% of AGI per year set aside for reimbursement for child expenses like sports, educational extracurriculars, etc.

If I offered to reduce their interest to 3.85%, and tack missed payments onto the end of the loan, and if they really want to live there, I would think they would be thrilled.