You may want to try and qualify for a lender handling the FHA 203 streamlined loan in your area.

Would have figured this process to be a lot more streamlined but that's probably expecting too much from a local bureaucracy...In today's auction, a buyer bid on a 200K+ property only to be told by his fellow bidder that he was bidding on a 2nd Lien.  

I am currently trying to decide what loan to take, a 203K streamline or the HomePath Reno loan.I have the rates differences and know the payment differences with pmi / no pmi, etc., I beleive I could refi out of the FHA in 6 months and as long as there is 20% equity as planned from our research and comps, the pmi would drop.

The amount of red tape and hoops Sec. 8 often makes you jump through to house these tenants seems really counter-productive to solving the affordable housing crisis that they seem to be pretty in tune with.With interest rates still as low as they are and the amount of people that are still moving into the bigger metro areas on a daily basis coupled with the sheer amount of investors in these regions descending in immediately on anything even resembling 'affordable', renovating, and reselling for top dollar - it's hard to imagine the availability of affordably priced rentals increasing any time real soon.Again, RHA could help itself (and the people they are supposed to be charged with helping) by reassessing and increasing rental rates, as well as reducing or streamlining the arcane bureaucratic processes that discourage landlords from wanting to rent to S8's.Once the market finally cools and the banks are flooded with what I'd bet will likely be massive amounts of short sales, and properties can be bought again on the downswing then I think we'll start to see a noticeable increase in the availability of affordable rentals.

I would buy a house that needs some TLC with a 203k streamline at 3.5% down.

The platting and subdivision process is somewhat expensive, but I if can have a seller sell it to me and I use the Texas VLB I can get an exemption on the platting process and streamline the process, I could cut out the red tape.

Their people are trained to handle streamline fundings and thats pretty much it from my experience.If the home is listed, is it listed as a short sale, or an REO?

We get contracted by hospitals to streamline their product re-ordering.

There is an FHA 203K Streamline for under 35k in renovations, and a Full FHA 203K for renovations over 35k. 

Typically the other party does not care and likes the fact I am representing myself to streamline communication.