What you will do with experience, is look at the sq ftg of a house (comparing apples to apples...such as like # of beds/baths), and the current sales price per sq ft, to see if the cost to buy is workable.

Certainly some bad apples are out there but the central idea I support is a push back to localized lending not lending with intent to distribute.

You only get one bite of the apple. 

I suggest getting multiple quotes comparing apples to apples from at least 3 different brokers/carriers.

Your analogy of the small v. little guy doesn't fly - its apples v. oranges.On top of that, Russia has been meddling in Georgia for years, sending citizens into the "breakaway regions" to populate them with Russians.

Comparing real estate investing with your IRA to real estate investing with personal funds is comparing apples to oranges.  

I've been trying to use logic to get you to see that one apple isn't going to grow you an orange grove.

Even with IO.

FL, NY, MD, CA, VA, NJ, Horizon Bank, Kalamazoo MIHuntington MI 75% LTV 5 yr IO product available.

Apples; 9.