There are just WAY too many unanswered questions.I have personally worked deals (short sale and loan modification with countrywide) and they have been extremely helpful and logical (i've heard many bad things about CW as well , but have not experienced them myself).

I did one there in the name of a trust as well.

You keep trusting people, you keep doing the things you need to do to be reach the goals you have set for yourself.

Let us pretend it will appraise at $500k (an extremely high number for sake of conversation).

I lived in Houston in the "boom and bust" late '70s and '80s (when the average house lost 1/2 its value and we got the innovative Resolution Trust Corp).

(first and second Trust Deed + fees or less?)

Not saying appraisers are intentionally inaccurate (though there have been incidents of that), but that its impossible to know which of multiple available comps truly represent the market.I'd be extremely leery if a seller says "here's an appraisal that justifies my price".

Since we're going overseas for about 3 weeks in July, we'd like to develop a Revocable Living Trust before we go.

Palus Hook is a beautiful brown stone type of neighborhood however it is extremely high priced.

FNMA loans have no seasoning requirement.The cool title company has to be cool because you will probably be putting the property into trust to pull it off legally.