Let me start by saying if you have solid credit, get a business filed, and get credit started in the business right away.

I for one am perfectly happy with painting old cupboards and putting a few good coats of wax on a wood floor, instead of refinishing it.

You'll be able to tell the areas that need replacing when you pull up the carpet and padding because the wood will be deeply stained.

I think the roof is pretty solid.

Both of these companies funded a TON of loans in my neck for the woods from what my research is revealing.

So the only way to get rid of the spots and the smell is to remove the carpet and pad, seal any spots in the wood of the flooring, and replace with new carpet and new pad.

The same bank may sell you a house for 60k, and it may require 20k of work, I love brick and block homes (no more wood frame, no matter how good a deal) as these are the easiest to fix and maintain.

She referred me to some very solid people (she was good at picking people), and her pictures showed me things like: rooms that were sized as to be hard to fit normal furniture in (very bad in a rental).

I guess my hang up is tied to the fact that when purchasing a property the buyer and the lender wants to see a solid history of rents of 3 years or more.

If you have solid financials and good credit, you can get 70 LTV refis by going to small banks in the area that do portfolio lending.