Is there a difference between an investment mortgage and a non-owner occupied mortgage, or are they the same thing?

Josh I have talked about this many times.On the residential side all these scammers used to exist.Sell the loan off so they didn't care and closed up shop when it fell apart.Now that residential is under huge government regs they have all moved to the commercial side.All of these people advertising many are just helpless point and fee takers getting sucked up into the scam.Many of these so called lenders are not lenders at all but mills running due diligence fees,insurance fees,deposit fees etc. and then say they can't fund later on to deny the deal.I have found direct lenders are very hard to find and I find one of those for every 20 scammers.As a buyer you do not pay upfront fees except for appraisal,survey etc.You can talk to these scammers on the phone and can tell by what they say they are not a true lender.I do very heavy lifting to make sure my lenders are real and I am not dealing with a middle man to protect my clients buying properties through me.Any company claiming to be a lender that will fund anything is more of a conduit (middle man) taking fees.A reputable lender will display recent closings and details of the loan.They will have very detailed rate sheets along with terms and conditions of the program.Any points will only be paid at closing when they perform.Many of these lenders will be highly specialized in a particular asset class and not broad in scope.The interest rates from legit lenders will be very close in percentage rate and LTV's.The difference being in how much money they have to lend and what loan size they specialize in and recourse versus non-recourse etc.Many lenders can promise but very few can deliver on the rates promised and close it.

I have an out-of-state PM and 2 on-going evictions, 1 for non-payment and 1 for non-payment and bankruptcy.

CRIME is a big one.The percentage of non-violent to violent infractions and if crime is increasing or decreasing in the immediate area.Intermodal transportation study is another and the future land use map.This will give you an idea of where they are today and what they have planned for the area in the future and how the city and county will be allocating their resources to develop certain areas.Much more items than this but it's been a long day and my brain is out of fuel........ :)

You do not want to lose a good tenant/buyer in exchange for a non-paying trash your investment and leave type.How about this?

If they had turned on the water to the house without looking carefully at the water heater, it would have flooded the house and scared the Jesus out of a non investor.

The problem is that when you try to flip a non-traditional houses, the risk factor increases dramatically.

Look for the wording “Non-exclusive agreement” in their contract and confirm verbally with them that if they don’t produce a high quality tenant who you approve of, they do not get paid a commission.Disadvantages: The agent will not be there to help you when the tenant stops paying rent in the second month, so it is up to you run your own background check if you are not satisfied with the agent’s check of the prospective tenant.

Increasing expenses is an obvious answer; non-obvious answer lies somewhere in the realm of corporations, being fully employed by real estate business, etc, hiring myself as an employee....I'd really appreciate any advice, even a referral to a real estate CPA would be useful.

Most board of Realtors contracts have a non assignment clause.