The taxes and penalties from 401k early withdraw can be near 40%, that's a huge amount of money you would be wasting.

You’d think to not waste anyone’s time they freely give those up.2.

Sometimes you may end up as a pipeline filler who ends up taking a much worse loan due to time wasted and your desperation to close.

@Ryan FosterYou mentioned minimal cash to get in.... conventional loans are 15% minimum for investments right now.

If it's a planned flip exit we model this very thin with minimal risk.  

I attempted to do this years ago but fell victim to the guru guys and wasted money.

A family member is also a real estate agent and would provide me with the 3% commission on the purchase of the new properties, minimizing cash outflow on the new properties.So my high-level thoughts are, I could downsize and buy two properties, which would reduce my monthly living expense by 1) a smaller primary note and 2) income from the MF offsetting a portion of the primary note, and at the same time I would be able to pull the equity I have built up in my current home, plus my current cash on hand, to further invest after the dust settles.

Sometimes they are set up because there is community water or waste management not handled by the town. 

In this  particular case, the price was WAY off, and it wasted a lot of people's time and money (I'm thinking home inspections, which are expensive). $25-$50k over ask is definitely not overboard and I see homes that are worth it sell that much over ask routinely. 

After owning 2 rental properties with a bit of house hacking in LA, I feel that I should diversify my portfolio now that it costs more to invest in LA with less cashflow. I'm hoping to get an investment property in In...