It's always a tough situation having tenants do all the maintenance and up keep.

the wearable headlamps are worth their weight in gold...and a camera.

For this reason, I am considering hiring a close friend to be my "roommate", free of charge, so long as they will handle all maintenance and upkeep needed for the property (I have some friends I trust that this should sound appealing too), I would reimburse for all materials bought for repairs (so long as they called me for anything over $50).

Eight thousand in, five thousand out including mortgage payments, expenses, insurance, taxes, utilities, and upkeep.

@Riley F. may not have completed a deal yet but that does not mean his advice should carry any less weight considering it was pretty damn good.

Rather than continue paying for the upkeep of the house & land he instead ended up renting the place to a farmer.

So, in relation to the balance idea above, if he get's to say 70% of available credit and then refinances back to 80% this too will weight down his score. 

I'll provide semi annual reports with bank statements showing my progress accumulating the refinance monies and also detailing what work is being done to the property and/or ongoing maintenance/upkeep.

I don't think ALL of those who weight in on the (lose personal deductions) argument have ever understood how to accurately calculate the comparison.

I'm not surprised one bit about being held at gunpoint but, being a native to Detroit, I'm pretty aware of the "hot spots" :)@Nick Keesee Holding would be amazing but, i agree, the price for upkeep along with the price for rehab would be pretty high.