Since the beginning of the year we have seen mergers and layoffs at:….City National Bank to cut 56 jobs in Los Angeles (2/14/24)Guild Mortgage acquires Academy Mortgage (2/13/24)Proprietary Capital acquires American Financial Resources, LLC (2/12/24)1st Priority Mortgage to acquire Hudson United Mortgage (2/6/24)Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. to shutter wholesale lending division (2/2/24)Newrez layoffs (2/2/24)New American Funding (NAF) to acquire Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp.

These LOCs will be unsecured and if it means anything, we have no business/investment history, as we're just starting; perhaps lower fee LOCs can be attained from a proven business with a history, or perhaps these fees are high independent of that?

My 'thing' is to make sure I use the equity correctly to keep scaling up and to move towards financial independence. 

Would prefer an independent broker, but honestly any suggestions would be helpful.

Are you an independent contractor or an employee? 

Moving title for the many free & clear properties we all own independently is not an issue but one of the spouses has a large carry fwd REI loss from previous years.

I did nothing but work, but now I'm financially independent at 41 with no job.

@Daniel K Houck I have 2 kids and a wife and they don’t want to house hack either so I can relate to your post.The BP Money series interviews a bunch of people where Financial Independence is achieved through frugality, REI, and investing.The story is the same there-start young, make sacrifices before kids, rent out your bedroom in your apartment and sleep on a sofa and grow your own food and use K-cups twice and count each piece of toilet paper etc…and by your mid 30s you are free!

When conducting an analysis of the numbers and layout of a commercial real estate property, would it be advisable to engage the leasing broker representing the property, or should I seek to gather comparable data and financial information online independently?

Kevin,My advise is to seek out 2-3 independent Insurance agents (they represent multiple companies) that can write in CA.