As it gets cheaper, with hard money at 8.5% - that's the interest rate on loans for apartment buildings, (California loans for investment, not consumer purposes) more people are using hard money lenders as a source for financing rental or investment properties.

I've done a fair amount of HUD bidding, and purchased three properties in 2013, so I know how time consuming the bidding process can be.Regards,Mark

Gary, I'm not a blogger, so it's ironic that I'm trying to give you advice on this topic...but it struck me as I randomly read your forum, that as a landlord I learned a long time ago to stick with what I was good at, and hire experts for the things I didn't do as well.

If you hire management they will consume most of your cash flow.Sell and buy in your new backyard.

Your agreement with the company providing the reports usually states that you are not permitted to give copies of consumer reports to the person being screened.

Now, in some areas it can get nasty, time consuming and if the deal isn't that fair or not in compliance the court can do a cram down, write down the amounts due, so a lender can get tagged. :)

A basic one page offer sheet summarizing the amount offered, cash or lending, now many days inspection, earnest money deposit, additional deposit #days, buyer and agent contact info and that's it.So how iron clad is such a work sheet?

I carry no consumer debt and still have my day job in which I can work essentially an unlimited amount of overtime to come up with quick cash.

We originally intended to use it as a rental, but we are having issues with vacancy (probably due to the season since rents are FMV) and will barely be making $100 CF even after we fix the vacancy problem.All that said, we are beginning to learn about LsO and will likely be speaking with an RE attorney soon to iron out the contracts.

Ironically the 141k house is the nicest and largest sq ft.I got the paper work rolling on a HELOC today, hopeful the full appraisal comes in north of $135k, hoping for $140,000.If this happens, the house will have appreciated $50k+ in equity in 1 years time on paper.