If I have to put my own money to repairs, and then, submit receipts, etc. to get reimbursed, then why would I want to borrow money for repairs in the first place?

Remember, TX has lousy appreciation (2-3%) and lots of marginal borrowers who didn't start out with any equity.

I got a basic lease from my local landlord association, I've borrowed a couple of books on leases from my local library and included clauses that looked good, but I've yet to find anything specifically for students.Does anyone here have anything they use or can point me to a good resource?

Secondly, how much should we borrow from the bank?

Mortgage loans are made based on the borrowers credit worthiness.

For example, if you 'borrowed' $20k from the city for the down payment it would be forgiven in 10 years.

What is a hard money lender and how do they differ from standard bank mortgages in terms of rate, costs, time etc?

My goal is to borrow at least 60% of the appraised value.

Let's just say that I don't believe it's smart to borrow money that you don't have a back-up for.

[b]Step 3:[/b] Put the borrowed money in a high-yielding savings account.