I am a firm believer in investing in your education.

Also, read carefully the audit opinion of the accountanting firm/CPA signing off on the financial reports.

Plus by virtue of contacting them they are obligated to fully investigate the claim and sent notations of any mold to a company like Choice Point (owned now by Lexis Nexis - the legal database firm) who maintains database records of every claim reported to them on every property throughout the US for every insurance carrier (competitors in the insurance industry all share claims data) who uses their system to determine if they want to insure a property or not.

Julia, you can learn to do this.If you are going to survive as a landlord you must be firm but fair.

The chance of interesting a private equity firm in financing 100% of your real estate purchase is about the same as interesting a hospital in letting you perform a heart transplant.

The lender might be planning on selling the debt to some debt collection firm.

My company is:Black Shield, LLCUnder it I put "A Real Estate Investment Firm", on buisiness cards, letters, etc.So you can always add a description

Stand firm and within your rights.

Lower it some more with a little negtiation room or take it to rock bottom and be firm on price?

I firmly believe the market for the Alt-A loan market has yet to see the worst of times, and therefore I don't want to get involved in a property that fails to appreciate in value.