Ex in laws have no say whatsoever...period.  

I've used on of the large national banks on a few mortgages and it was like pulling teeth.

We closed by the skin of our teeth.

These types of loans don't take into account any of your personal income whatsoever or even care if you're working, etc. 

The thing is commercial residential has some rather big teeth in it, and a novice can get into serious trouble fast on that 8cap property they bought.

I need a job with some "teeth" and from what I have researched, this sounds like a great start.I am looking forward to learning more about the challenging world of REI.Cheers-Jason

And if it were an ideal world, there would be no need for any inspection whatsoever, because ideally everything is done flawlessly :)

If you add to it, the potential exponential gains from investing (instead of spending) that extra $5k could have gotten you, the total loss is higher than face value....and to me, this isn't investing...it's speculating.Joe, when I look at it from a perspective where I am completely not making any income whatsoever from my normal income job or elsewhere, then yes, I definitely would be losing money on the property.However, if I am getting that income and putting it into the property, I am still increasing my equity correct?

The board has no teeth but the licensing agency sure does.

I have improved something in the past that I thought would be a problem/offensive to potential tenants, only to have no one care whatsoever about that improvement, and realize later that it was my own sense of "I wouldn't want to live that way" that led me to improve it.