On your earnest money agreement make sure you get a credit for refundable deposits and prepaid rents (last month) and prorate lease which your escrow closer needs to know about.

I have owned the property for over 6 months.I was in contact with a broker today that said he could get me 80% LTV on a $100,000 mortg ($80,000, 30yr fixed, 4.99%, 2 points)He broke down the fees as follows:[b]Mortg Broker's Fee (2%) = $1600Underwriting Fee $295Other charges:Appraisal fee = $400Credit report fee= $38.50Closing/Escrow Fee = $150document preparation fee = 55notary fee= $15lender's title insurance= $664.88closing protection letter= $75endorsements= $155wire/disbursement fee = $25courier fee = $46.50mortgage recording charge = $187hazard ins. reserves = 73.33 x 6 mons = 439.98county tax reserves = $162.50 x 6 months = $975daily interest charge = $10.937 x 5 days = $54.69__________________________________Est. prepaid items/reserves = $1469.67Est. closing costs = $3306.88So from my $80,000 loan, I end up netting $75223.45 after fees.

Again, an FHA loan allows for the Seller of the duplex to contibute up to 6.00% towards your closing costs/prepaid expenses, so you can take that into consideration with the price your willing to pay (ie. higher price & less out of pocket for you).If you were in TX I could help, but if not, talk to a local mortgage banker/broker and they can get you set up.One more item, if your current residence is financed by FHA then you can't do this as your only allowed to have one FHA loan at a time with very few permitted exceptions, of which your situation does not fall under.

Does this lump sum need to be 'seasoned' or because it would be written up as prepaid rent a bank would be more willing to write up the mortgage?

derek, i have a few 15 years...to be honest, it's nice to pay them down quicker, but again, i'd rather have the longer term with the flexiblity and option to pay it down with extra principal payments...and witht hat extra cashflow, instead of paying that proeprty down, i could use it to buy another property which would provide better returns than paying down a 6% mortgage...william, that's a good point...and perhaps my views will change as i age as well..then again, debit is cheap right now, no matter how old you are!

.#2 Get yourslef set up to auto debits and every rent day, debit her account and get the revenue deposited into your account.

We accept paypal through our website and we use it to take credit/debit payments over the phone.

That's just for the actual costs, not prepaids or loan points.

Last time one of my college tenants wanted to bail early his pop pre-paid the rest of the rent, with the understanding that if I could re-rent before the end of the lease I would refund the balance.If you don't have a parental guarantee and the students remain local, take 'em to magistrate's court and evict 'em for nonpayment.

Some of those are prepaid expenses, like taxes and insurance.