I didn't because the tenant was extremely cooperative and in a difficult situation

In your situation you'll probably need to just keep saving I'd be very interested to see what you get pre-approved for, but based on what you've told us I'd be shocked if it was anything over $250k which won't get you anything in the Bay Area. 

He refused, but I had no time to take him to court and sue him.The other issue I have in you situation is try to be cheap and wind up picking someone based on cost.

Then I would have a lot more money for a house hack situation.

I'm in a situation where the home I moved into (about 16 months ago) was a new construction in a very new/empty part of the neighborhood, and the appraisal pretty much matched the purchase price... but since then, the neighborhood has filled with new homes with similar or worse specs that are being listed and sold for more than $10-20k+ above that appraisal.So my question then is: when a lender looks at LTV, do they calculate this based on the fair market value as of today, or would they need to use my original appraisal figure?

@Joe DeLucaI had a similar situation last year and can offer few thoughts...For the new system: From my experience, a new septic system is a capital investment and that will need to be depreciated.  

Hi there, I would like to understand the deal flow better - it seems pretty straightforward on the surface- but wanna know more details.My situation - I have a few long term rentals that are slight positive cash flow.

We’re in the same situation.

Brokers can be very helpful in those situations due to the fact that they've seen a lot of similar situations.

Is the neighbor aware of the situation?