We just went under contract on a 284 unit deal in Houston, TX.We used a local attorney for the PSA (purchase sale agreement) and who was familiar with local laws and customs like using the Texas equivalent of an ALTA title insurance, etc.Also keep in mind that for commercial projects, a large (6 figure) deposit will be required and in hot markets a portion of it will be non refundable.

I have a fourplex in alta vista and ran my numbers expecting a 10% vacancy each year when the college term ends and all the students move around.

The appraisals on my past Alta statements have ranged from $450-$600. 

So here we missed one payment in this example, but our credit report actually shows 3x30 day lates.Like @Harjeet Bhatti said, you're probably cut off from the gov't subsidized Fannie/Freddie stuff for an investment property for a year or so.However if you come across something, and it's such a screaming deal at that price that it still makes sense even with non-ideal financing (remember that if you have to choose between the two, killer price is better than killer rate -- as any successful flipper will attest to), there's a lot of "Alt-A" (once upon a time called "sub prime") that's come out just in the last year that's better than HML.

There are 500k sub-prime loans out there right now 41% of them are in default with late payments not to mention all the forclosures,and there are 700k Alt-A laons 54% of all of them were cash out refi the biggest contributor to loan defaults are negative equity my question is who sets the values on these homes are there any appraisers here that can give us the answer or is it the slow economy thats doing it and if so than its everyones fault that this is happening any opinions ?

Earlier today, I was sent an article from the folks at Forbes that they thought our readers would be interested in.The article is a great read and brought a new perspective to things for me.Subprime In Sheep's Clothing talks about how a new trend in the industry, a mass of defaults in Alt-A loans, may continue the downward pressure on the markets right where the sub-prime loans left off.This one is worth looking at!

I view the RE market as a place with a lot of opportunities in the near term, and I think that the opportunities are just likely to get better as capital mkts events unfold (I saw a graph somewhere of Subprime > Alt-A / Opt.

A high number of of Alt-A loans that are coming up for adjustment are Non-owner Occupied homes.

Examples include residential Alt-A programs that don't require income verification, loans available to Hispanic homebuyers with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) and programs that permit 100% financing.

It is probably and ALT-A or portfolio product offered by that lender.2.