It is still possible that the folks you meet there could be sharks, so still be wary of that, but I'd say your odds will be much better.

It turns out that there are 2 septic tanks, both from ~1950.  

The oil industry tanked and I had a baby on the way.

If tenants pay I would look at 2 80 gallon tanks. 

I have been using Clock Shark for about 2 years in my restoration business and have been very happy with it.

If the loan officer knows what they're doing (meaning they collect the necessary documents and they do a complete application on the front end and there are no wild cards like the appraiser finds an underground storage tank or mold or any other crazy thing that can come up to bite you) FHA can close in 3 weeks. 

If the market starts to tank I guess I will just max out the HELOC, hold the proceeds, and pay the interest to have the funds liquid in my account.

The current owner said they have had no issues, and have only had the tank pumped once while owning it in 3 years.

There are 3 families that have 1 hot water tank and 1 boiler for the whole house, especially in older homes like this one.

@Simon GhandilLinda D.I think it is also worth mentioning here that a typical 30yr mortgage with $3K down would only be payments of about $153/mo - and that is already assuming an extra point or so to account for credit blemishes.Heck - even a mob loan shark at 20% would still only yield a payment of $451/mo...