To start, you need to document the noise. Just grab a notebook and start making entries. "May 10, 11 pm. Stomping and music loud enough to wake us up and prevent us going back to sleep." "May 11, 2 am. Stomping, slamming and yelling woke us up. Continued for 1 hour." Next, what did the rental management say when you brought this issue to their attention? Did they say they could do nothing, or did they commit to doing something? Which they may have done, but which had no effect? After that, what does your lease say? Is there any clause about noise, or odors or hanging things off the balcony? (Every lease I've had has clearly stated that nothing could be hung from either the windows or the balcony. If they are in violation of any specific part of the lease, bring that to the attention of the management. Now, with at least one week's documentation in hand, go back to the management. Remember, management only knows if there's a problem if you tell them there's a problem. If, after your first complaint, they called or wrote to these tenants, they will consider their job done. Unless you come back and tell them that the noise is still on-going, management has no way to know that there's still a problem. Most places have a system for dealing with problem tenants. There may be an oral warning, one or two written warnings, a final warning, and then eviction, which can take a couple of months, depending on the state where you live. And the management may not be able to tell you exactly what they are doing and when, just that they are following the rules for dealing with problem tenants. So, for as long as the noise continues, go see management every week, bringing a copy of your documentation with you. Your goal is to make it easier for management to deal with your problem upstairs neighbors than it is to deal with you. By that I do not mean that you should be rude or threatening to management, just that you should be very, very persistent that the problem is not *your* problem, but a building problem and one that management needs to fix. You know, you have an ace up your sleeve. If, after a month or two of this, the noise hasn't stopped, you could always ask if they would let you move to a different unit and waive the transfer fee. They might say no, but then again, they might say yes, just to stop your weekly visits to their office. But I wouldn't start out with that, but keep it in reserve.

I can't answer all your questions, but I can offer some advice based on my own experience. First, from what I can see in the pics, your roof doesn't look that bad. Nothing against the knowledgable neighbor, but if he isn't a contractor, appreciate what he has to say and seek professional advice. Don't give contractors the impression that you're worried about your roof falling in, because SOME may feed into your 'paranoia' for lack of a better term, and no offense intended by that comment. I'm saying this because I've had situations where we obtained quotes on tuckpointing our chimney, and of course there's one contractor out there who tries to scare us into thinking our chimney is going to fall down tomorrow and it better be rebuilt for a whopping $25k. We got it tuckpointed by another contractor for $300 who laughed when we told them about the other quote. I'm not implying that ALL contractors are dishonest, I'm just saying this was my experience with this particular contractor. If roofs weren't designed to support three layers of shingles, there wouldn't be an ordinance allowing this many layers on your roof in the first place. Three layers are the maximum allowable. I would also go around the neighborhood and ask for recommendations for a roofing contractor rather than just pulling out of the phone book. Go to your local church and ask them. Word of mouth, in my opinion, is best, and sometimes contractors who don't spend money on advertising costs have more reasonable, lower rates. Get several quotes, and compare them. The more you do your homework, you'll get a good feel for what the job is worth. ASK your contractor for references, and contact prior customers and ask them questions - would they have done anything differently, is there anything they could recommend that you wouldn't have thought to ask at the very beginning, etc. Submit all change requests in writing. Similarly, our roof was a three-layer complete tear-off, which of course is going to be pricier than just adding another layer of shingles. Be sure EVERYTHING they're replacing is written in the contract - flashing, gutters, etc. I'd recommend a 'ridge vent' for proper ventilation, not sure if this is standard these days?? I'm not sure what you mean by, 'You may as well open up the main ceiling to be vaulted as well'?? This could be a simple matter of adding more vents in your attic when the roof is replaced. Problem solved. If you need gutters replaced, now's the time to do it - you'll get a better 'package' deal, at least we did. I had some ill-placed gutters re-routed. Since our entire roof was a tear-off, we added a master bath rough-in for just maybe $800 extra, as we were only paying for lumber - the roof was already being torn off, so all they had to do was expand the frame. Can you expand the roof anywhere? Now's the time to do it! You can probably inspect the underlayment from inside your home yourself. Go around with a flashlight to check for signs of leaking. We were told our roof needed to be replaced as well, but we also saw signs of leaking and later found carpenter ants in our attic on the underlayer of original cedar roof shingles that were covered over. Not good. Also, for this reason, if there are any tree branches near your roof line, cut them away as carpenter ants will use this as a conduit to your roofline. They love moisture. Be sure to replace any rotting wood. We also used a pesticide in this area of our attic for the next two years just to be safe. From a financial standpoint, I would look into taking out a home equity loan for the roof fund, if feasible. Even if you don't do the roof now, you know that the funds are available in an emergency if necessary. When the time comes, be prepared that when the roof comes off, there will be less weight on your house, the house may have minor shifting due to less weight on the support beams, and you may or may not have very minor surface cracks in the walls afterwards (we have an old 1920's home), but nothing major that simple patching won't cover over. If you use your attic for personal storage, competely cover your belongings with tarps or remove EVERYTHING and store elsewhere until the roof is done, and plan on using a shop vac when the job is done - nails, dust, etc. Prior to the start of the job, clear areas in your attic so the contractor can properly inspect the roof from the interior as a precaution to locate potential weak spots. They'll appreciate that and I'd imagine they recommend it for their own safety. Cover ALL plantings outside. The contractors will do their best to discard all materials on tarps, but it's inevitable that you will find nails and refuse on your lawn and in your plantings. Don't let them talk you into storing a dumpster on your driveway. It will become so heavy you risk cracking your driveway, and residential driveways aren't designed to hold all that weight. You may have to pay a little extra to have a dumpster on the city street, and of course a permit may be required depending on your municipality, but I'd insist on it and pay the extra $. Lastly, be good to your contractors and they'll be good to you. We supplied them with a cooler of refreshments (they were on the roof on the hottest days of the summer - talk about hard workers). They don't like to be watched over, it makes them nervous and you don't want a nervous contractor trying to balance their footing on your roof. Our contractors didn't like the fact that our neighbor plopped himself out there everyday on a lawn chair and watched them from dawn to dusk. Ugh. That's another story! Very important - you should obtain a lien waiver from your contractor when final payment is submitted. This is especially important if you are working with a company who subcontracts their work. THEY are responsible for paying the subcontractor as part of your original contract agreement, not you. Good luck!

Once I asked my Financial Planner's assistant (the CFP works at our bank) to transfer $5,000 out of one of my accounts and into an investment. I got a phone call from my banker (who works at a different branch than our Financial Planner) early the next morning, she was curious as to why I was $44,000 overdrawn on one of my accounts. I told her she was asking a really good question! It seems the assistant put $5,000 into the investment as asked... but transferred $50,000 out of my account to do so! What shocked me most was that the bank allowed the transaction to go through! I would've thought it would set off all sorts of bells and whistles and management would have been alerted before I ever heard about it, but not so. But this is my bank... with whom I have a relationship... and my banker recognizes me by name when she sees me. I bump into these people when I run errands in our village. Were I dealing with strangers, I'd be involving my state's attorney general and all sorts of regulatory people (BBB, local news stations, etc.) IMMEDIATELY.

happy2bme: I honestly can't think of any scenario in which a $350 notary fee would be reasonable for a single sale! What does it take, like an hour or maybe two of mostly waiting around? Take a look at the link below to see the notary requirements for FL. The coursework is 3-hours and is offered free online! The notary application is only $39 and the other requirement is that you have to be 18 years old. So where are they getting those fees from? I don't know how much $350 matters to you, but maybe you should ask why you're getting charged that much. rrah: Yes, the fees are small in relation to the total price of the house. But it makes me feel worse when I have significant cash outlays EVERYWHERE else, too. Inspections, lender fees, realtor fees...all stuff that I'm never going to get back. I guess I mostly have a problem with the escrow companies not being very up-front with their charges. By the way - the fees I listed were for me as a buyer. The seller also got charged a wire fee (probably to pay off her lender), and my wiring the money into the title company's escrow shouldn't create a charge because I am separately paying my bank to do the wire. Like I said, I chickened out and didn't question it....that's my own fault. I think the escrow companies count on people not making a fuss. Especially because they are doing that nickel-and-dime thing where each charge is not that substantial in itself. I'm not saying all their charges are bogus, because of course the county does actually charge for recording and courier costs need to be paid to Fed-Ex/UPS. But I can bet you that, at least in my case, they have loaded some profit margin into both the recording and courier fees. I vote that escrow fees should be the only compensation for their services - any other charges should be strictly third-party charges with no padding. They could modify their escrow fee as needed if they somehow (I doubt it) haven't built enough profit margin into the current fees. I don't know how it works in all the other states, but in CO and CA, the title companies are the escrow providers, so keep in mind that they are already making a lot of money off the insurance premiums. I suspect that they would still do just fine if they provided escrow services free of charge with the purchase of title insurance. Nobody has said what they think about the title insurance premiums. Anyone know where the heck the money is going?