I would limit the exterior work to pressure washing the exterior and painting the front door in a warm earth tone color.Maybe you could dress up the front porch area with a few potted plants, and 2 cherry stained wooden chairs with throw pillows or something.

There was a large subdivision outside the city limits, that means everyone there was being insured by other companies under a higher risk (fire protection class code).

It's my understanding that cash out refis are hard to come by.You may need to get private money, obtain a huge second or refi it and then do a no cash out refi later to get where you want to be.Only two ways to get equity out, sell the property or borrow it out, borrowing has tax advantages and does limit liability in a round about way.I'd consider your cost of money and use of funds considering paying down principal on a home that was to be used for a 7 year period, you could probably do much better using it in other ways.

This is not limited to the “small guys” either.

I was making really good profits on every flip (as high as $50k on one) but I was severely limited on the number of projects I could do.

Available add on services, monthly maintenance inspections, monthly market reportsRepair limits without notification, what is your limit?

There are now servicing requirements, limits on balloons, and qualifying the buyer's ability to pay.  

-StevenI believe Steven meant FLP which stands for Family Limited Partnership.

If you bought the home today and needed to sell it a year or two later, you'd have a home that will have depreciated along with a shortage of available buyers due to limited financing options.

I've just grown skeptical of the Fannie process so I've moved on to non-Fannie deals.I believe the Fannie deals are going at a premium to account for the special financing terms (lower LTV ratios and ability to finance more properties than the usual Fannie limit).