Today's market is tough in most places; keep looking and don't compromise this is all about making money and I don't bet on appreciation at this stage of the market.

You appear to be a property manager so I'm willing to bet you follow this same process.You appear to live in Pennsylvania so I will tell you what your state law says: Prepaid Rent: A landlord is only allowed to collect up to 2 month’s rent for escrow purposes, 1 month’s rent during any subsequent years. (68 P.S. §§250.511a.)A recent ruling in PA makes clear that it doesn't matter if you call it prepaid rent or last month's rent or security deposit.

Your best bet is probably going to be to look for smaller local banks or credit unions.

Are you willing to bet you would win that court case if you do something different?

If you are betting on a dumb tenant/buyer and dumb judge, that's on you.A sandwich LO with a consumer at the end is not legal because you must have fee title to the property to give a LO.Finally, if you want to do LOs, just do owner financing. 

Be honest with yourself that you're betting on price appreciation and hedging against inflation because the neighborhoods with a large share of 30-somethings renting or owning in it that are fairly safe are going to be about break-even with rent prices at best.

Your best bet would be to partner up.

Going forward, I would do that every time you move to be able to take advantage of both your entitlement and your new opportunity without having to come out of pocket with a boatload of cash.Use BP for recommendations of decent property managers in your new cities and I would bet you find decent ones so your properties are well taken care of.Best of luckStephanie

Hi Marty,It really depends on your goals and where you are at in life.If you are risk averse, then buying a house for cash is probably your best bet.

If you can't do that then a HELOC is probably the best bet, but make sure that your rent will bring in enough cash to cover both loans.