I’ve been a real estate agent and investor for over a decade and have only had this come up on a handful of occasions and prior till today no one has detailed out the rules to me  personally.These rules concern a fairly narrow set of circumstances that many investors will not encounter until it’s causing a problem, so no I don’t consider it common knowledge outside of lending circles.Not being able to sell a home for a profit for 90 days is from my perspective a fairly arbitrary guideline.  

You're allowed to do work for it yourself, as far as the IRS is concerned it's you. 

Maybe I will just have to spend a weekend in one of the cities.kson Wu  You basically summarized all of my concerns about the SGV into a few paragraphs. 

As a going concern I believe those assessments would be interited under California law.

This method leaves a lot of stress and unknown factors off the table and limits the pool of potential buyers to serious investors instead of dealing with the potential issues of individual buyers looking to buy a owner-occupied unit. 

I am not aware of any jurisdiction that will allow you to do it on your own as you must first start with a survey and grading plan and then the engineer will determine best practical methods for the stormwater.

I guess the seller's attorney thought it wouldn't hurt to ask me...I agree re: being concerned about the HOA's lack of responsiveness.

So, the best rates are usually with shorter balloon periods like 5 or 10 years.When the balloon period is coming due, you just reset the balloon period for another period term or refinance with another lender.the only thing you have to be concerned with would be early payment penalties if you try to refinance too early.

Basically, instead of testing every outlet and door handle, he is inspecting the larger and more concerning items, i.e. electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roof, drainage, attic space, foundation, crawl space/basement, etc.PM me if you want his info.

If you qualify anyway, you would probably be better off just getting conventional loan in your own name.Another concern is that co-borrowing with an LLC could be the equivalent of co-mingling funds, so you run the risk of making the LLC useless anyway.