I also have a healthy credit that I maintain in the worst case where insurance and reserves are not enough to pay for an expense.My reserves are held in liquid investments that still earn better than 3 percent.I also do not invest in areas that I might be concerned with the rental market totally collapsing.

Josh,Interesting dynamic when the seller has "skin" in the game.....even if it is the bank's money.

These days, there can be a vast difference in being financially healthy and the manner in which banks evaluate mortgage qualifications.

Lee, if you have enough room, you can certainly just use transactional funding which would likely be the way to go over a hard money loan as the HML will require cash reserves and skin in the game.

If it's an otherwise attractive and healthy tree, I would limb up the tree as high as you can and see how it looks, and if it's still in the way, cut it down.

This total cost puts it relatively in line with the 2% rule and would make it a healthy addition to the rental portfolio.I am sure others on this forum have had similar situations.

Overall Charlotte healthy and long term growing market.

You can learn from investors' mistakes and maybe they'll teach you some of their tricks.(3) It allows you to be in the game without having your skin in the game just yet. 

I my area they universally want you to have "Skin in the game"  This was not the case in the boom  they would do 100% for the right deal. 

Your loan officer should have told you this upfront after receiving the contract.From FNMA's perspective, since mortgages secured by investment properties are statistically more risky than those secured by a primary residence, the guidelines are set to ensure that the investor has more skin in the game.