The existence of a contract -- I agree with you on this -- may be a complete defense to such a claim. 

If this is financing for a stabilized property rate carries more importance but rate combined with origination fees, pre-payment penalty and term in which you intend on keeping the loan in place are all considerations which together should help in deciding the best financing option.

My idea to buy a home is to get an 80% LTV 1st mortgage from a bank, take over that mortgage and give the seller a second mortgage for 50% of the 1st mortgage balance because I need some cash to cover the payments, which the amount of cash would be more than the remaining equity in the home.

The one to four is a very comprehensive contract that covers everything and even has room for special provisions when something out of the ordinary needs to be spelled out.When doing not so normal purchases like a sub-to, I dont use the TREC, but one that I created from several other contracts.

The older the home and the closer to the city center, the less likely an HOA even exists. 

Let me know if you have an existing group or interested in forming one in 2025.  

A 1031 exchange is NOT available for owner occupied property so that’s the bad news.The good news is for owner occupied primary residences, for married couples, the first $500,000 of pain is tax free.No need to worry about a 1031, live in the house, sell it, use the $500,000 exclusion and you pay KP tax on whatever profit may exist,2.

We are closing on our first South Bend rental property next week, as our local market opportunities have become non-existant unfortunately.  

Yes, we will be able to live in our own house and not throw away our money in rent, but we will lose all the cash flow because we will need it to cover the primary residence mortgage. 

A lot of section 8 renters go straight to their case workers with issues like this and it becomes a lot bigger deal than it needs to be.Just do the treatment, cover up the holes, and move on.