rich23s, Home Depot sells a product, it comes in a roll, its orange in color, its flexable plastic, it has little squares imbossed in it.....Sorry I cant rmember the name, but its in the tile and flooring area, ITS slick, put your floor prep down, lay the orange membrane over that, let it cure, come back tomorrow, lay mastic and lay tile.

Their side is all the rest of the test-ready installation (ducts, custom made return w/grill, plenums, and mastic sealants).  

The paint sort of melted from the heat and rotation of the sander and it constantly gummed up the sheets.

Don’t chew gum in court .

Try chewing gum in Singapore!

I tried farming out the tiling and just ended up with guys who could mastic something to the wall but couldn't understand how to make it aesthetically pleasing.

If they ask me to pick up a gum wrapper I say "nope"

I had a pretty tough predicament, a layer of vinyl flooring was glued onto the original floors with mastic. 

That said, the liability of knowing about the presence of asbestos in the living area or HVAC system (ie in plaster or floor tiles, duct wrap/mastic), but not disclosing it could come back to bite you if something ever did occur.Much of our building stock is old here in the east - 1920s-1930s would be newer buildings in some neighbourhoods.  

I think the trend will swing back from renting and group psychology about "rising real estate values" will kick in just as it did 10-15 years ago.Yes I think we should keep buying to get more pieces on the board (boats in the water to rise), but completely disregard any potential appreciation both in terms of our return calculations and psychologically (in other words, don't get caught up in the coming "real estate boom" psychology and buy marginal properties or cash flow negative properties expecting appreciation).That may mean doing fewer deals but it's a price I'm personally willing to pay.There are also some broader economic issues which could throw in some systemic risk and gum up the works, such as Russia-Ukraine, the Chinese economy, the European economy (and some of its weaker members like Greece), etc.So in my mind I think there are three possible scenarios: 1) 1/3 likely to have steady good growth in RE values (scenario of U.S. economy continuing to do reasonably well but little/tepid real wage growth), 2) 1/3 likely to have another boom (scenario of U.S. economy doing very well and finally having real wage growth for the first time in a long time), and 3) 1/3 likely to have the train get derailed by external factors such as the world economy, some kind of war, etc.In all of those scenarios it seems to me that good, cash flowing properties will be good to have.