We  go every week to hear good music, and drink good beer at the place we first met.. lol  What Im hearing is "refinance" what we have and pay off our primary , and maybe some of the smaller debt ones !

3 - any advice on how to compose the offer, do we use $1 for earnest money or make that like $5k to make the offer look better?

The city's appeal is the continuous flood of new restaurants opening, the music scene, a festival or 5 every weekend, easy access to beautiful city parks and walking trails and paths, an easy airport to connect quickly, and that ole southern hospitality. 

I also love art, music, and finding host families for foreign exchange students. 

I called this neighbor and she described to me the drug deals going on and the loud music in the cars that pull up to the house at all hours.

I've been living in my home for 7+ years and I've seen the neighborhood change with some property owners renting out their homes instead of selling them.In that span of time, I have dealt with and encountered a slew of issues from many of the renters - the noise ordinance issue being the biggest complaint, based on many of the culprits blasting loud music from their cars at all hours of the day and night, with no regard for the time of day and who they were disturbing.Yes, I have called, the police - along with other neighbors, but being that I have lived the closest - with the culprits either living beside me, across from me and now adjacent to my bedroom windows as the others have either moved or stopped.The other issues have been lessened, like the previous renters shooting as they have moved, but all of this tension has been building.

Obviously no one was paying rent but they took the rehab money, never did the rehab and then sent $650 checks each month til the music stops.

(if you like that kind of music!) 

Cap rates are really low and you don't want to be the last one holding the bag if the music (appreciation) stops.

HIS fees have been far higher than we anticipated through this process so we are hoping to avoid a $750 reply for this information since it seems to take him 2 hours to compose every email and doesn't return phone calls.