If you look at the one base fee charged by escrow, it is most of the time equal ... although I highly doubt a bank selling one of their reo's that requires you use their escrow is truly paying as much of that base fee as the purchase agreement suggests.I would be a little careful using one title company's definition of a 50/50 escrow fee as a basis for concluding that writing 50/50 on the standard CAR form is going to be interpreted the same by all escrow companies.It's kind of a moot point because however it is interpreted, both buyer and seller, after review, approve and sign escrow instructions and that then becomes the controlling authority for the balance of the transaction.This is hardly something that keeps me up at night.

I doubt your market is comparable to these though, so it's important you have a strong "thesis" for market growth where you're looking to purchase.

You will probably be paying 10% higher using hard money loans as compared to conventional.

Houses in the area compared to mine are renting around $1,000 per month, so the cons are my property is in a service drive, no basement, and no central air (no biggie in michigan but being on a service drive and considering car fumes might have to install one) pros are most houses won't be as nice as mine, renovated, nice open layout and 2 car garage.Now to the question, I'm concerned that the master has no bathroom, so the renter will have to go downstairs to use the bathroom.

You can check comparable properties on sites like zillow.

I am in the position to pay cash for one property in this price range but realize that wouldn't allow my money to be working as hard as it could compared to leveraging the bank's/lender's money.The Question: To those creative and experienced out there, I feel there might be a solution to my goals in buying my first investment property in cash.

I've only dealt with the Atlanta Housing Authority.

Meanwhile flipped homes were still purchased at an average discount of 13 percent below market value in 2013, the same average discount as 2012, indicating that investors are finding discounted buying opportunities outside of the public foreclosure process — particularly in those markets with the biggest increases in flipping for the year.”Major metro areas with big increases in home flipping in 2013 compared to 2012 included Virginia Beach (up 141 percent), Jacksonville, Fla., (up 92 percent), Baltimore, Md.

The result is the taxpayer may end up paying a tax rate that is comparable to the state with the highest tax rate.When you consider the 50 states in the U.S., there are 43 that impose a state income tax.

The author Frank Gallinelli is also very active here on BP.