This is pretty aggressive lending, to lend more than the purchase price is borderline speculation on the part of our investors.

Speculating d.)

Can you handle a net loss (negative return) just to speculate on appreciation?

Infinitesimal is the probability of concern for him, and in moving forward boldly in real estate requires that one does not become paralyzed with far-flung speculation from people scared of things that they've heard of other people who know of people who have had such and such happen.

Right now it is easy for the public to be led to believe that investors are landgrubbing speculators looking to make millions off the suffering of innocent Americans.

However, what we can do inside HomeVestors is give data to backup the ability to be successful over time, and what a given advertising spend should relate to leads/contracts/purchases in a given area (plus all the other benefits)  Nothing is perfect, but in any speculative industry knowledge is power, right, and certainly allows for increase in probability of success.I wont apologize for stating a fact about someone who spent 7k on advertising without receiving any leads.  

All speculation without having all the details and that may not be acceptable to the seller.

Should I state that repairs are speculative and that I have not yet gained any rehab experience?

Before Michael Quarles' post I speculated that out-of-state absentee owners may have a higher affinity towards a specific investment area, since they're taking more risk by investing there.

That was someone not a lender speculating that what you described could, in theory, happen.My response was that if a firm started doing that, all of the loan originators would instantly mutiny, and it would kill the company.