. ;-) Dodd-Frank probably is going to be substantially changed coming up in the near future.

, if you can save substantially on that, and refinance the mortgage with cash out, yet still profit from the property, that could be the way to go. you will need to run the numbers with different loan options and the interest rates you can get while making sure you can still profit from the properties you have.

And a big part of that question is, "is this person really a cash buyer, or are they just saying they are".It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg, catch-22 type challenge - how can you get lenders to be willing to invest money with you when you have no experience, but how can you get experience without funding deals.You can try to find lenders who only focus on the deal and not the borrower (as @Sam Albert said), but be aware that many of those are going to want a substantial down payment.The other popular option, if it's available to you, is "friends and family" to help you out with your first deals, as they already know your general character and may take a chance with you on your first properties.Also remember that if you familiarize yourself with self-directed IRAs (plenty of resources here on BP and elsewhere - RIRIEG just had a weekend workshop on it a couple of weeks ago), you may find that friends and family you thought didn't have any money to invest actually do.Good luck and let us know as you have specific questions along the way of course :)

The biggest value I've found is a substantially better cashflow than a long-term rental.

The Ms took their case to Tax Court (representing themselves).To substantiate their claim of being real estate professionals they produced a journal, which the tax court noted: <<Petitioners’ journal repeatedly lists hours spent “in the office” on real estate “stuff”.... however, it does not list the amount of time attributable to rental real estate activities or the type of work completed.

For a buy and hold with substantial equity I agree with the attorney. 

So part of me wonders if I should walk now with a substantial amount vs the cash flow numbers I've posted for the first two years.

So I'm trying to figure out the fastest way to get a substantial amount of liquid assets to be able to pay for a place with cash.

I have owned this property 25 + years and could see a substantial "capital gains" hit.

I am no expert, but this does not seem to be worth that risk, however small the risk may be.Maybe if the house was worth substantially more than $149,000 or you were able to give the seller a lot less than $65,000 it would be worth getting that extra equity despite the risk.