There may or may not be a pre-pay penalty, obviously I would negotiate for no pre-pay.- at year 7, can i extend balloon or notNo, unless it's in the contract or the seller agrees to it. 

I'm advising folks to keep a close eye on Clay, Cicero, North Syracuse, the neighborhoods including and surrounding Eastwood, and the neighborhoods by the university.

The law does NOT apply to landlords:With less then 5 rental unitsThat live in one unit of a duplex and rent out the other unitThat rent out rooms in the home they occupySo, landlords can no longer state in their rental ads, "Section 8 not accepted".The reverse is also true, "Section 8 only", cannot be used.We've always recommended screening S8 tenants the same way as cash-paying tenants.Landlords waiving application fees and/or security deposits only for S8 prospects may also be violating Fair Housing.

Yea give her the advance notice, maybe she pays and you save on the eviction fees.

So if you are using that site or something similar you could very well over pay for the home.

Quote from @Jaycee Greene: A few things I noticed, in addition to having the tenant pay the utilities are:1) Incorporate annual increases in rent higher than 2% (in your area, maybe 4%-5%) with a slightly smaller increase in operating expenses (say 2%-3%)2) With a gut rehab, I'm not sure why you need to spend $128/month on cap ex, at least for the first year or 2.3a) An 80% cash out refi is probably going to be hard to get.

The cost will be much smaller than the taxes you could have to pay.

I am a little unique in that most of my tenants are referrals either from folks I know or folks that my other tenants know. 

STuart as I think through this and folks I know in our business.

zero risk, there is absolutely zero risk when you pay off existing debt :)