Sometimes we approve someone who has disclosed an adverse credit/financial history or has no rental history and we will require 3x coverage.

The 21 year interval mentioned is the time period for "adverse possession" in Pennsylvania; failure to serve notice would result in this situation.

Honestly I can't imagine trying to pay off most mortgages in increments when you could simply put the cash to more work elsewhere, unless maybe if the house was already very close to being paid for.I suppose also if you were very risk adverse and wanted to build equity in the property for a refinance later on to reduce payments... but given that interest rates are not going to get any lower (foot in mouth perhaps) I would hesitate to plan to refinance later on to increase cash flow.So the long and the short of it is, it depends, but it seems likely to best scenario would be to refi the high interest rate items and use the cash gain to pay off the near-complete items (or use the capital you're planning to use in 'safe' higher paying investments for a set period and then cash it all out at once).

@Peter Walther How do these exclusions factor into the claim analysis:Defects, liens, encumbrances, adverse claims, or other matters(a) created, suffered, assumed, or agreed to by the Insured Claimant;(b) not Known to the Company, not recorded in the Public Records at Date of Policy, but Known to the Insured Claimant and not disclosed in writing to the Company by the Insured Claimant prior to the date the Insured Claimant became an Insured under this policy;

This became a problem when one of them, who had apparently been there a few weeks, didn’t want to leave and claimed he had squatter’s rights via Colorado’s adverse possession laws, which of course requires 18 years of open possession or 7 years of paying property taxes/color of title, not two weeks of crashing on the couch, but you can’t argue with crazy.

When you do that, you have to send them an "adverse action letter", which basically says that you turned them down based on something in their credit report, who you got the credit report from, and offer to give them a copy of that credit report. 

@Karen F. even if you don't charge a fee, if you do run a credit/background check and use that information (credit, residential, or criminal) from that report in making your adverse decision, you are required to report it.

Would love to have a conversation with, or be referred to, anyone that has had success with adverse possession in Texas or is familiar with it's workings.

All 3 household have benefited financially from Covid stimulus, no one adversely affected yet (one retired, 1 on SSI, 3rd is "essential workers" (grocery clerks).

@Branden Smith if you do deny them due to the credit report be sure to send an Adverse Action letter per FCRA rules.