I'm also hesitant to bet heavily on permanent tax deferral strategies (e.g., "buy, borrow, die") as a lot could change about the tax code over my lifetime.

Now a permanent buy down option (where they just pay points in a traditional manner) can solve some minor DTI issues.  

Hope there isn't too much exposure but wouldn't surprise me if somebody ends up with a fat fine from the SEC after this.... 

I hate paying $10 a cylinder to rekey, but it's better than a tenant permanently locked out of a unit with only one door.  

You can't take an education back from someone, so making it permanent debt was the solution to facilitate lending at reasonable rates.I see your point about some degrees being more practical than others, but I can only imagine the outcry if banks were allowed to pick "winners and losers" among career choices.The bigger factor here is something you address almost weekly in your podcast.

If so you should be able to talk to a lender that has experience with construction-to-permanent financing. 

Now that we're back Stateside permanently, we wanted to start doing our own R/M, most specifically the heavy work between tenants as this seems to be the most costly time suck of the entire operation. 

People always plan to leave Vegas and "go home" or somewhere else, but the large number of extremely well paid jobs that have very low education or skill requirements tend to make these "transient" workers more semi-permanent.

This is most commonly known as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS).

Then we turn around and refi that loan into a permanent loan right away.