A lot of time people say they're "doing great" on a house that is just breaking even and they're happy that their vacation home's mortgage is being paid each month. 

-If you do a long term rental, how do you pay back the hard money lender/private lender (if you use one)?

We literally just got through the 6 month hurdle to get it into the LLC; now we are told it has to be a second home mortgage and back in my name to pull equity.Current loan is 237K owed; 450K+ apraisal value

My attorney has advised me a structure where: I own the Living Trust --> Living Trust owns the LLC --> LLC owns the property (Title)My lender is not okay with this 'Nesting' arrangement.

A couple of things: Builders will often (usually) built a big chunk into the price of the house to give "incentives" if they use their preferred lender.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Helocs will be tougher but can get a 2nd mortgage going full doc .

If you have credit card debts with high rates/high balances I would focus on paying it down to 15% to 30% Max balance to credit limit ratios to lower your DTI - Debt to income ratios, increase credit scores and be in a better position to buy more properties at a lower mortgage rate.

So would that have any effect on taxes to be paid or its just 2nd mortgage to be paid upon closing, making capital gains less (285k mortgage+45k HELOC=330k loan-600k sales price=270k total capital gains)- I am reading that even as a FL resident selling a NJ property i have to pay 8.97% NJ state capital gains tax plus a 1% realty transfer tax.. - so to summarize: 15% federal capital gains tax, 8.97% NJ state tax, 1% realty transfer tax, depreciation recapture and whatever other costs for closing.https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/documents/pdf/guides/Bu...

Are these not regular mortgages?