If you understand what the appraisers will be looking for you can significantly increase values by documenting the repairs made by your contractors.

Also, if I made an LLC, even though this is my first home, would I be able to take out a commercial loan, even though my LLC would have less credit than I personally would?

As we are getting closer to the new year, I wanted to know if a January 2017 payment made in December 2016, would the interest on that payment be applied towards 2016 taxes, or 2017 taxes?

This may be a long post, but I thought it would be good to walk through everything step-by-step, and explain my thinking along the way.If you want to stick with me through it all, here we go:I was not going to be getting a conventional mortgage for my first property for a number of reasons.First, I am still annoyed at the hoops I had to jump through to get a mortgage for my primary residence.Second, my liquid cash was on the lower end.Third, the properties that I would need to start out with would not be financeable anyway.Fourth, my DTI is on the high side, due to the decision that we made to take out a HELOC to complete interior improvements on my primary house.So, I decided that my path was going to be to form a single member LLC, and take a loan from my 401(k) at work to finance the down payment.Since I do not view the 401(k) loan as a long-term solution, I am treating like hard money, and pay it off ASAP.So, my first deal would be a flip, or a rental that was such a good deal, that I could re-fi out and pull all my cash out.I decided to reach out to the commercial lending department of the local credit union, which I am a member.The person I talked to (who became my lender) is fantastic.I told him what types of properties I was looking for, and that I’d look to turn them into rentals, or to flip them.I will never forget his response, which reminded me why I love this credit union.He said:“Typically, the deals you are talking about are much smaller than the deals we like to do.However, we also realize that you can not get to that level unless someone helps you get there.So, if the numbers make sense, we will see if any of our products fit.”Awesome!

There are of course (sneaky) ways to inspect the property without tenant being aware of the sale discussion (posing as insurance agent etc), however I do not want to run this business in a sneaky way, and even create a perception of being scam-y or sneaky with the customers... 

He's made millions...and by the way he finds it very hard to find suitable deals in this environment too.  

@Nicolas @Nicolas Conca  Saw your post and made me think of this article i saw the other day.

What makes this particular property special is that it is in DC, which is a very expensive market by the way, and it has high end finish such as custom cabinets, marble counter top & hardwood floors throughout.

Initially I thought I had made it and was going to be moving up in the ranks and receive a great salary because I did what I was told: Go to college, get good grades, and get a job.

More common is the potential buyer who pays large sums up from for the promise of financing that disappears once payment is made.