If you're talking FHA 203k, or Fannie Mae HomeReady, or anything that is a re-branded version of either of those (if your rate is below 5% and 30YF, good chance it's just a mortgage product rebrand), then the bid in front if you is NOT in fact the "best" bid, because this contractor is not Reno Financing Friendly, making the bid essentially toilet paper. 

There is a property that otherwise "looks good to me on paper" for a portion of my exchange.

@Colin Yang quick answer, stack paper and educate yourself!

Mortgage defaults have to sky rocket.. and his position was ( and I think its pretty common knowledge) is that with the changes in mortgage lending rules  IE no sub prime  No liar loans etc. that the bad paper has pretty much flushed through the system.. there will always be defaults as we know ( Bruce participates at the auctions I believe).

When you learn to accept responsibility for every aspect of your business, you don't tolerate any nonsense, as that nonsense is reflection of your failure.When you blame others for problems in your business, it's easy to accept the nonsense and chalk it up to, "Well, it wasn't my fault...nothing I could have done..."

The process took about four years and when the court issued the ruling we threw in the towel and paid the insured the amount of insurance under the policy, I think it was about $56k. 

Andy, You can write them checks so there's a paper trail.

San Antonio has HEB which I am sure doubled profits on toilet paper and hand soap alone this year.  

They also charge $50 per application, which is fine.I really don't want to have tenants fill out paper applications and then scan/email or fax it to me.

In this case the paper trail would unravel quite quickly and both parties would be in jeopardy.However if the seller were willing to put the whole 4.5mm into a new property worth at least 5mm there should be ample equity to then take out an LOC or other debt instrument against the new property.