She owns a small Horse Farrier business and wants to build a house (as her primary residence) and barn (for her horses and business) on the property in the next couple of years.

I'd watch out putting the cart before the horse.

A while back I overheard an interview with Pulitzer prize author Jane Smiley talking about her book Horse Heaven.

You should get an award for resurrecting a two year old post to beat a dead horse :)

Cats out of the bag, horse has left the barn, only thing to do now is ride out the system because you don't really want to go to jail for arson.

Motivated by the desire to escape the rat race and fired by entrepreneurial spirit, I want to hit the ground running with my first property soon.

There's no reason you can't be finacially free and out of "The Rat Race" well before you turn 30!

Apparently they're having more problems than real estate investors are from the look of the article.Weekend Read: The Trojan Horse of Accredited-Investor VerificationIf anyone has vetted one, all, or a superset of the companies listed above and can give the summary of their services, fees, etc. it would be great to see.

Such increased values are not taken by insured lenders.I can't change what the rules are, lower of cost or market, 12 months in RE valuations (marketable assets are different, they go at current book value, a horse of a different color, but I'd also say in reality, that any security that jumped in a very short period to double it's value probably wouldn't be taken at current book as collateral as it would be considered a very volatile security).The rules and regulations as well as definitions are what they are, opinions won't change them, I didn't make this stuff up, they have been effective for decades longer than I've been in business.As I mentioned, there are folks on BP who disagree, some for the opportunity to disagree, some to validate what they do, some have other motives, but it is what it is, you'll do better my understand the how valuations are treated.Point made on accounting matters, we are getting off topic in David's success story as the topic. :)

I'm ready to start living and not just working in this rat race.