To land the plane, I would recommend checking the credit unions first for either product.

I am planing to keep them as rentals, so I would like to get a construction/permanent loan.

Midtown is one of my favourite areas of Memphis, it's up and coming and close to growth points.Considering you planing to live there, have a loan for 30 years with 5% down at low interest rate and it's over the 1% rule, I think Go for it.All the best.

Get my LLC, my systems in place, Tax advantage, and start the clock on being a landlord in the eyes of lenders.Only concern with the buy is that it is 2 lots over from the very edge of a flood plane ( no insurance required and my "exits".

I think that all the baskets got a bad smack-down with this economic down turn.However, I agree that it is good planing to have multiple job skills and different ideas about how to do business.

If you were flying on a plane at altitude, wouldn't you want more than one way to protect yourself if things started to go wrong?  

Holding on to it is a major responsibility if you have not planed in advance to make it a rental and not worth the headaches.You will pay a penalty on the mortgage and possibly lose money on the sale but the freedom is most likely worth the loss.

I may be in you're area in February, my wife and I haven't mapped out where we are going in Europe yet but have the plane tickets.  

@Graham StephanWhat is the back end DTI you're being qualified at and how much are you planing on putting down Sir?

The tax deal baffles me because the prices are all over the place for basically the same type of home on the same size lot and the same age.For our own home we are looking for 5-15 acres with a nice sized ranch home on it, not in a flood plane with the ability to build another home on the property and it needs tax exemptions close to The Woodlands. ( within 15 miles as this is the area we want to call home )I noticed that many rural properties have ponds on them, I am assuming this is done to use the dirt for raising the grade of the home to avoid having flood insurance.