I find it rather funny that you said "asshat" i thought i was the only one using that. On a serious note what I have learned over the years is that if you have a good feeling about the owner and he/she seems genuine then you'll have a good car. People can have records but if they sound honest and look you in the eye i have even forgone PPI's because I felt so comfortable. My most recent purchase of a 2002tt showed me that there is honest people out there. The seller spoke with me over the phone and email's, answered all my questions direct and when I showed up to see the car ( drove from NJ -NC) he had breakfast and coffee ready for me and my buddy. I looked at the car and records, drove it for 5 minutes and bought it. I'm currently in a should I buy this 78 SC situation and my buyer lives in the middle of nowhere, he's older and has a deep love for this car, his 5th p-car. He's also with zero records but describes all that he knows to a T and it all added up when I saw it. Good luck to you on your search, you're bound to find what you're looking for. My tt took me 9 months to find

 

Solid.....hey, thats what I'm looking for......lol.

I must say, maybe I do take Tony Robbins stuff a bit too far at times ie everything we do is Pain/Pleasure driven. I just want to make sure I mitigate the pain (deferred maintenance) as much as possible on the front end so I can have the pleasure of driving the car.

BTW...I'm not too risk averse....here is a link to a house my wife and I renovated in Hawaii 4 years ago....we sold out of it right at the peak of the housing bubble (luckily). The house was a skeleton when we bought it and we spent 4 years making it what it is today. Its truely a sanctuary if you ever make it to the Big island.
http://volcanovillagelodge.com/lodge.shtml

 

Wow. That's quite a "house." Impressive.

Brett