and that was owner occ.. todays rates are pretty normal actually. what you can do if you want though is find a really good HML and let them place a loan for you making 10 to 12% while your wait for things to change to a situation that you feel you want to move forward be more net return than buying a rental thats for sure. of course no tax bene's but there really is not that much tax benefit on one rental.. so just some alternatives. 

Third, if they have $2bn of agreements (whatever that even means) why haven't they actually started building anything or even closed on the land.  

The withholding can also be stopped altogether, and only actual taxes owed will be collected by filing form MW506NRS at least 21 days prior to settlement and filing it with the Comptroller of Marylands office to get the exact actual tax owed calculated. 

Even on referrals a lot of contractors are hesitant to run around for investors new to an area until they trust that they will actually get work out of it.  

I don't have a lot of background on this - just what you provided - but that actually seems like a pretty reasonable message with some valid questions. 

Such actions are wholly unacceptable and should not be tolerated within any professional environment.The discrepancies between the program's marketing claims and the actual conduct of its top students, as exemplified by Kristin Witherspoon, are deeply troubling.

I always get a kick out of people who say they would never do this or that and when you start quizzing them, they've actually never done anything. 

Since you missed the 2 out of 5 rule, capital gains taxes might take a chunk of your profits, so consulting a CPA would be smart to understand how much you’d actually keep.

The bank will make you leave 25% equity in the property - but you also still want the property to at least cash flow some - so be careful how much equity you pull out / new debt you take on.I would do a cost benefit analysis of what your actual gain is in cash-flow on buying a new property with a (currently) higher interest rate (if financing), versus just holding on to the current appreciated property and enjoying that cash flow.All the best!

Rent control in the bay area can be extreme as many areas have rent control in excess of the state mandated rent controlIn general experience RE investors are not choosing to add a single ADU in single family zoned areas.