Honestly, I think they may truly have been able to make ends meet; low income have a huge capacity to stretch a dollar.  

First and security is a stretch for many tenants.  

A savvy tenant in a tenant friendly state can stretch it out for months.

I would stretch the car payment and save to purchase the home that could cover the rest of my payments. 

However, I was thinking of using some cash to buy the first SFR probably in a different state (maybe Texas).In the future, I want to purchase some condos and multifamily homes though.I will be living in San Francisco, so buying a home in that area will be a stretch without loans.

I'm trying to stretch my initial $35,000 investment into as many properties as I can.

When I sold it the same month I knew it was a stretch.

Because the bank knows me, I can show I don't need their money but I'm willing to borrow from them, my experience, they trust me, I can also pledge other assets unrelated to the property. 100% isn't anything really, I can get 125% or 150%, it's not based so much on the property as a business loan.I'd say most you claim to do that with seller financing might be stretching it, lying or committing mortgage fraud, but that's another matter. :)

This week we closed on a house I sold in Richmond.But my home area is Garden Oaks/Oak Forest, Lazybrook/Timbergrove, and I stretch out to the Heights and up to Spring Branch and Cy-Fair.

So we are now in the final stretch.