.- The housing inventory is ridiculously low - If you look at historical context, the prices are right around the average for affordability (based off of Debt to Income ratio)- While interest rates will most likely start going up more, they are still very low.So.... no current trends putting major downward prices on real estate.If you send me a message, I can send you over the documents with the data if you want to get into the details.

Seems like historically tax related changes passed by congress will apply in the tax year passed.

See if you can find historical rentals in your area versus across town.

Part of the house is an old stone house from the 1800s... so even though it needs to be gutted on the inside, it does provide some historical interest....so has some unspecified/intrinsic value, which is difficult to quantify.  

What if in 3 years when you have the equity, prevailing market interest rates have returned to their historic norms of 6.5% or 7.5%?

We also have a giant historic Hyde Park home (great historic part of Kansas City) on 3 lots under contract that we will turn into several separate apartments.

With interest rates at historical lows and debates on interest rates going up more this year, It makes sense to me personally to keep my cash on hand and get a fixed rate loan (as long as the numbers work and you can get 8%-10% cap on the unit).Personally I am also more concerned about cash flow than value of the property so this option works for me.

People looking for a historic home are looking for character and having special items like 'these windows came from a school house' and the lighting came from there and these are the original fireplace mantels, that were completely stripped down to this beautiful tiger oak' makes a huge difference. 

I am using a general contractor because this only my 2nd flip and i'm not comfortable taking on the full project myself yet plus its a huge project (Historical district 1931 built 3/1) the contract between the GC and I is for roughly 70K and was to be paid in 3 installments with the last one upon completion of the project.

.), but yes FHA mortgage insurance does come off after a decade if you do FHA 90% LTV.FHA mortgage insurance is still not PMI (even LOs make this error/typo, don't feel bad), however, so dropping it before that 11th year would require a refinance to future/current prevailing market rates (which may have returned to historical norms in the 6.5%-7.5% range), no matter where an appraisal comes in during year 5 or 8.