Decides, "Hey...wow...all I did was bring a loan current and now I have $250,000 in insurance proceeds to cover the loss of the home but heck, I only invested ten grand and I'm not on the loan!

Property at present is a 6-unit here in Grand Rapids.

7 grand per head!

It looks like your capping home income in whatever calculation you are doing which is literally one of the worst things you can do because you will pay 20 grand for a run down home thats worth zero and you will do it 26 times over.....I don't think Frank and Dave have a "sky high formula" and i feel like you are missing the entire picture here. 

In the grand scheme of things, if it cash flows with only $20k put into it, and the market crashes, it's really not a big deal.  

These dont sound terrible in the grand scheme of things.

hi amy. i am originally from michigan myself. grand rapids area. this house sounds like a decent deal, and if bank number one doesn't want to help, find another bank until you find one that will work with you. every bank has their limits on certain types of loans and on this one, the first bank may be maxed out, nothing to do with you or your credit or anything, its just where the bank stands within themselves. absolutely look for another bank. look until you find the one that will work. your own home is NOT an asset, it is a liability. when you buy a house to live in, you just bought a mortgage payment with interest, a phone bill, a gas bill, a tax bill, and maintenance costs. the only thing you can do with your own home is pull out your equity when you have some and use the money to buy another house that is an investment. i am not saying to not buy it, but use it to your advantage

The one time I left the water in my name, I ended up with a water bill over 5 grand.

NA Martin-- I just slapped my forehead...I work in Grand Terrace, my daughter was in the NICU at LLUMC for two weeks (she is fine now)...Loma Linda never even crossed my mind.    

If it's old and going to cost me almost a grand.