Just like a bad tenant who raises red flags, you want to deal with those immediately before things progressively get worse.

The private money lender agreed to sell the property back to me at the appraised value .

The broker returned my phone call immediately and drove 45mins from the office he was located at for the day to come visit me at the location i dropped into instead of asking me to drive out to him, we spent over 2 hours talking in his office going over everything the company has to offer, he really took a lot of time to make sure i understand everything the company has to offer, the commission seems to be very in the agents favor with 2 programs to choose from.

I am primarily interested in multi-families to rent, but I have no deals for you, or for me at this point ;)

I've never bought a house before, and i've never had an income to be able to be picky about my living situation, so i really have no idea what amenities to look for, and even worse, no idea what large ticket items to look for. obviously roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing - but what indicators of those can i actually inspect on my own and be able to see if this house has any major red flags? 

After trying to reach him all day yesterday (former mortgage contingency date), he finally called me at 7PM with his usual completely unfounded confidence and said that the file should be through U/W by Friday and we’ll close next week.

@David Dachtera  first course of action is to simply and I say very simply.. go to the county or city .. talk with the planning department.. and make sure the lots were recorded as final plats.. and are legal lots of record. just because utls are in does not mean the plat was recorded.then see if there are any other red flags.. then go to public works ask the same questions.then go to the building department and make sure they don't have them flagged.

Fresh meat for the sharks!

I was required to fax in:Copy of my Drivers LicenseCopy of my Social Security CardNOTARIZED water service applicationSigned copy of settlement statement from title companyThis seems like a ridiculous amount of red-tape required to set up water and trash service with the city of Dallas.  

Look for one that's been in business for a few years, because they'll have found that sweet spot of making money and leaving enough meat to keep repeat business.