I continued paying what I had paid before, with the additional money purely going to principal.The recast to a lower amount was purely to reduce my committed monthly payment to a point that I could get my property to cash flow if I had to move out (job loss, etc).

Today we are economically diverse and showing job growth in several sectors.Having said that, I am not an economist (or a fortune teller) so these are just my thoughts after having gone through the Great Recession and knowing how housing-dependent we were then.Melanie

My job has steady income, but no W2s and no pay stubs.

I'm a 30 year old husband and soon-to-be dad in a dead end sales job in Alabama.

I guess my challenge right now is to define the strategy and balance all the factors, such as job and population growth (value increase), cashflow (demand & supply market, interest rate, property tax, maintenance cost), and risk control (insurance etc). 

There are several different types of income in the US tax code.Two main types are “active income” and “passive income".Active income is money you earn from working, such as wages from a W-2 job or income from running a business.Passive income is money you earn from investments like real estate, stocks, or rental income from your RE portfolio where you earn $ without actively working.Normally, you can't use passive losses (like losses from real estate investments) to offset active income like your salary from a W-2 job.That is unless you are an RE Pro.The reality is, that Real Estate Pro status is just a filing status similar to filing married or jointly.And if you are a real estate professional you CAN use passive real estate losses to offset active income from other sources.To qualify as an RE Pro you must:1.

I would apply to all of my dream homes and trust that the landlords can't refuse me because I would be protected under the Fair Housing Act. 

Ben Russell has done an excellent job of covering differences in the lease.

She's smart and I would expect she will do a great job with AHP. 

@Chris Kay beleive you can do DSR loans without a job as they qualify the property, not the borrower.You'd still need 20-25% down though.That's where you have a decision:- Pay down the mortgage, setting yourself up for a future refinance to free up your VA Entitlement.OR- Save up for your next acquisition.Only YOU can make that decision as you have to be comfortable with the increasing debt-load risk and the additional time to manage everything.