The easy way: Have enough cash for a 25-30% down payment plus the rehab and all your closing costs.

Avoiding the due on sale clause is easy - buy properties that don't have loans on them.

There is no such thing as a dumb question here.Freddie Mac deals are not easy.

I think I could have sold tires and been successful, maybe not as successful as in RE, but RE was not the key to success, simply a means to make money, for me it was (is) easy money, but I enjoyed my business, my contributions and assisting others who wanted to achieve something.

This is not always so easy.

If you have that it can be as just as easy as doing it in your own market.

That will seem easy now, but I can tell you from experience it is not.

I don't think the idea is to pay off the property at par.In an easy numbers example, let's go with a house that has a $200K loan, but is worth $100K.

Not sure you can get an easy extension, that sort of defeats the point of maturing the loan.

My local lender asked for past 2 tax returns and still asks me for a recent pay stub every time I apply for a loan even though I now have 4 through them.One big paycheck might be easy to show (depending on your industry/pay scale)... tax returns show a better trend of your earning power.