Hi everybody,I've spoken with a couple of FSBO sellers in the past month that are underwater.

I was underwater on my mortgage but I had to move due to my job.  

.- Must personally guarantee the loan, i.e. if I go underwater and cant make payments they can come after my personal assets.Now granted, this would be my first time taking out a loan. 

OKAY,  you increased your equity position and thus the LTV went way down.So now you have stagnate funds tied up in the property and the new loan payment increases the cash flow.That may well be a very conservative play if you're positive that rates will go thru the roof, but also may have put you underwater if there's a housing crash and prices go into the toilet.IMO, staying liquid in times of uncertainty allows more flexibility.The investors axiom is preserve cash and use OPM whenever possible.

I was far underwater, so I decided to rent it out instead of selling it. 

I'd probably go with doing 25-30% down over all cash so that protects you from being underwater if the market takes a minor correction..

We currently own one rental property which is our former home, but I plan to own no less than six rental properties (preferably small multi-family units)  in addition to the one we currently own, which is "under water". 

More details: streets and power are in, one lone house was built and is inhabited (poor guy is way under water).

Originally posted by @Matt Groth:I am far from a permabull, but how many mortgages in forbearance are underwater?

I understand wanting to have liquidity in the event of a market crash to potentially buy more deals, but doing so at the cost of putting yourself into a massive negative equity situation seems bizarre.Your other plan to "limit downside risk" is to cash out by selling to a family member at what you're expecting to be the height of the market and then sticking said family member with a property that they are underwater in debt with?