@Rick Pozos  excellent ideas for lender verification although pretty time consuming unless you can simply ask your title plant or customer service rep at your title company to pull the info..

Hello, I am a writer for CO-OP Financial Services consumer blog, and am writing an article on buying real estate in a different area than where you currently live.

And they also aren't the consume generation like we were.  

Those are subject to the 10 mortgage limit rule and other consumer regulations.That's a loan in your name, not an LLC.Commercial loans are commonly 15-20 years max, with the rare exception of a 30 year offering.  

HVAC is the biggest consumer, but often very expensive, so harder to predict pay back as it varies. 

If, as you say, you are unable to provide 2 years of recent tax returns, then the default response from the lender will be a firm NO.You may have better luck if you ask for a commercial loan rather than a residential consumer loan.

I tried hand writing the yellow letters, addressing the envelopes, etc. it was to time consuming for me.

Good job on staying out of consumer debt, keep it that way and investing will be much easier. 

., consumed), borrowers pay the taxes gradually over the following five years as they repay the loan with after-tax dollars.

I am a newbie investor from Southern California and have been spending a lot of time reading forums, books, and consuming as many podcasts as I can over the past several months.