I realize that it is for my benefit, but can I not accomplish the same thing that a title company does, other then offer title insurance by conducting my own investigation into the former owners of the note?

It if was not then there would be no liability benefits as it would still be you.You need to check with the local recorders office, title company or attorney depending on how you are going to handle the paperwork.You can send a certified letter to the lender letting them know that you have transferred the title.

You could lose your job or have something else happens that makes the equity very difficult to tap into.If you are thinking to sell now, pay the tax, pay off the home, save and then start investing in RE it seems to be a very indirect way to get to the goal.

In this case you might want to look at what LLCs in your state can do when it come to employee benefits.

Are you mostly looking to be the listing agent or are you interested in directly investing?

Louisiana Representative Jim McCrery said the provision could hurt housing markets in coastal communities.Tightens QualificationThe realtors association told lawmakers in a letter last week that the vacation-home provision ``does not eliminate any tax benefit but rather tightens the requirement'' for qualifying for the exclusion from capital-gains taxation on the sale of a home.U.S. law generally allows married homeowners to exclude as much as $500,000 in profit on the sale of a second home, provided the owners have lived in it for at least two out of the previous five years.

Anyway great site and I hope to give and benefit as much as I can from and to it.

There are tax benefits.

They also pay for title insurance to benefit the lender.

As AllCash has already mentioned (you have quite a memory there 8) ), the PMI drops off at 80 LTV (loan to value)---based upon the figures you provided, your current loan to value is 88...There is no benefit to a rate and term refinance at this point, if your intent is to eliminate PMI...There might have been a time when comparing a refi option with LPMI (lender paid PMI) might be feasible, but in the absense of more info (and prevailing market conditions), you might be better off leaving things alone.Regards,Scott Miller