That change can alter my growth strategy and increase the risks substantially.

@Nerissa MinnickWe love Metro Detroit (my rental portfolio is here)We recommend trying the suburbs first and then can alter strategy from there.

Headline could easily be “Record number of people make life altering financial mistake not buying while homes ‘were affordable’”.

It has to do with the fact that the bank's risk is greatly altered by the sale of the collateral to which the NOTE is tied.

Before signing::Have your personal Real Estate familiar attorney read the purchase agreement and loan documents agreement to protect yourself.There is NO "boilerplate" agreement that cannot be altered; carefully read and understand application of every wordIn R.E. transactions of this nature ALL things are negotiable. 

You can alter your ratio and use an LTV that is lower say 60 or 65% LTV vs. 70 or 75% LTV to be more conservative and make sure that the ratio is at or above 1.25 as long as you are comfortable with your cash-on-cash return (which might be a good hybrid option between paying all cash and funding it with leverage).  

Co-mingling and alter-ego are two of the top ways. 

However, the two reasons LLC exist are (1) to produce a “remote entity” that doesn’t have the compliance complications of a corporation so that it’s relatively easy to comply and very difficult to prove an LLC is a persons “alter ego” (thou nowhere near impossible) and (2) to provide a remote entity that qualifies for “pass through” taxation benefits.  

Brand new knob and tube would be marginally ok, if you added a ground wire. 125 yr old wire of any kind is a hazard, and knob and tube in particular has a lot of issues Some of the previous posters have tried to justify it saying that it is legal because it was up to code when installed.....but they neglect to say that any K&T system still in place has certainly been altered, modified, added to since it was installed...and that automatically makes it illegal.

Using the 1980 CPI formula to calculate inflation yields a current inflation rate that is around 16%, rather than 8%.http://www.shadowstats.com/alt... @Eric