> > Googling the house can give me a big clue about if the sale is 
going 
> > to be worth the effort or not.  
> 
> Do mansions or cottages provide better pickings?
>
It varies.  One of the biggest scores of my life came from a regular 
old ranch house on my own street. Another giant score was in a 
regular house in the next town over.  Some of the mansions are moving 
sales and the family took anything good with them.  If not, the 
prices are often sky high.
 
> > you can still get a virtual tour of the house.  
> 
> I wonder what's a video of a cleaned-up realtor-ready
> property is going to tell you, though.

They generally haven't repainted, and the pictures show the place 
with some furniture.  It tells you what the peoples' taste, if any, 
was like and if they had anything nice.  An expensive if older couch 
bodes well. Ikea **** means RUN the other way. 
 
> > > Bird's nest.
> > Yep. Snot it is.
> 
> Or, yes it's snot. Reminds me of when I heard this
> normally buttoned-down Swiss kid guffawing wildly, and 
> I asked him, what's up, and still uncontrollably laughing 
> he pointed at a comic (I think Zap Comix, maybe not, but 
> something of the sort), with the exchange
>  - Is that a booger?
>  - No, it's snot.
> 
> I didn't see what was so funny. The guy is now a shrink.

And that tells you everything you need to know about psychiatrists? 
 
> > > something useful makes more sense than anything else.
> > I was thinking more of harnessing bean stew, but the garbage pile 
> > would be highly useful. 
> 
> Figuring how to harness farts in your general direction 
> would be quite an interesting problem.

Methane recapture technology could be useful.
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