However, the assumption that any turnkey company will sell you a property $10-20k above appraisal, resulting in negative equity, is also incorrect.

Ughh....You're incorrect....The scenario you picked out of the article is for a residence that was a rental FIRST...You just proved my point....NQU can only occur BEFORE it was used as a primary residence...That section of tax law is clearly explained by Kitces...It's different if you rent the house out before you occupy it as a primary residence after purchasing it....I even posted this in the post you just quoted me on....What you posted matches exactly the scenario I already painted:"That's not accurate at all.

Then she's right, it's incorrect for you to do that after having accepted her rent.

Odds are your lease requires you to pay the water bill and apparently you cancelled service, so he is now billing you for the cost up until the new people moved in. Correct

This is incorrect. 

@Mounir Semia I looked into this a few years ago so things may have changed and I may remember incorrectly, but I think US Bank did 90% LTV and Huntington did 90 or 95%.

But sometimes you can't be sure, so you ask questions that have a slight error in them (give a rent that is incorrect, and lease start date that is incorrect for example) - a friend will just say that the errors are correct, but a landlord will comment that the facts are actually different.That is how it is done.

It might give some flexibility should, for some reason, you want to foreclose later....other liens to wipe out, quirks in the local laws, etc.

@Justin PhillipContracts for deed (which what it sounds like) in Texas have significant legal quirks.

Its incorrect to think you can charge them for all of your costs to return the property to the exact condition it was in when they moved in.