It was extremely hard to get information about properties while owners and brokers seemed a lot more careless and missed basic things.  

I feel like that's the extreme people go to."

That would put you between probably $3500-4500 depending on dp, property taxes etc. 85k salary, let’s say you are taking on home 60k, like even with house hacking, you’d simply at best be extremely house poor, at worst would be challenged to afford the mortgage, the vast majority of people buying homes in our area at this point in the cycle for a variety of reason are dual income households, tbh for a single person making 85k a year, you are just much better off renting or moving to locol area if remote or hybrid.

Meanwhile,  its not unfathomable for the bank who is approving your loans to wonder why this particular borrower feels it's necessary to take such extreme steps to protect themselves...what is it about them or their operation that is leading them to take such extreme measures?

Bridge loans can be extremely useful for situations where you may be purchasing a property that has tenants already in the property who are well under market rents to the point where a DSCR loan wouldn't cash flow.

@Matt Owens - I've used the HELOC route to expand my portfolio and it has been extremely effective.

So it did occur to me that she could be extremely desperate to find him somewhere to live and be ready to lie.

But I went downtown and had an extremely difficult time reconciling what I was experiencing with my pre-conceived views.

It would be an extreme high/low strategy.

I have been extremely satisfied with the way all the deals have progressed so far.