Since he was 6 months late on the loan, I had urgent needs for the loan and wanted a wire for many reasons (my bank- bank of America puts holds on all large checks, so I am blocked from access to it for a week) and I didn't trust him with my wire information as he told me point blank "I'm not going to give you that information" when I asked who the closing attorney was. 

Since we had successfully invested close by in neighboring Mexico, it made sense to at lease have a look at it. 

Hi all,New to Bigger Pockets but started following real estate closely a long time ago.

To add a 4th point if you will, more like point "3a" (it's kinda closely tied to your 3rd point), if the Buyer ever wanted to sell, the Buyer would be "locked in" to that deal for at least a decade or until the house was "above water".  

A low-cost way to do it would be to paint the walls, the garage door, and close off any access to utilities.

But Generally, most lenders will want to see that the lease or market rent can support the mortgage payment, the borrower does not intent to live in the property, the borrower has 20% down + closing costs, 6 months reserves, and credit is above 620. 

(Currently own a 4 unit rental and 8 acres planned for development in the near future).I have just received my closing disclosure and boy is it ugly.

I am a new landlord in my mid-twenties who just closed on a duplex in Ferndale (an area of metro Detroit) in early April.

That said, we don't need to be next to family but being somewhat close by has advantages so those places are favored somewhat.The strategy is to buy, househack a value-add multifamily for 2 years then rinse and repeat until we can build up enough capital to either start developing, move to larger multifamily or the wife wants to start a senior care facility. 

DSCR Loans are going to be standalone 1st liens too (in addition to can't be used on a primary) - you should look into a HELOC or closed end second potentially