also, a hard money lender letter will be just as useful as their proof of funds letter, and if you assign the contract, you don't even have to come out of pocket.

I am sure you can help liven up the commercial investing areas of Bigger Pockets!

At the same time, renting always puts money into someone else's pocket.

Bigger Pockets is a site dedicated to real estate investors.

By cutting time we cut overhead which allows us to charge less per sq/ft and put more ROI in our Investors pocket which in turn keeps them coming back and reinvesting in new projects.

Great deal on the house but the market for flip is bad, like everywhere.Paid $101k out of pocket to buy it (high down payment) got 5.65% 30 yr loan, monthly mortgage $1570.

Only think I can see that you didn't add was your name :D other then that welcome to Bigger Pockets.

(Pocketing about $50k under the table.)

Marc,Welcome to Bigger Pockets.

It does, however, mean that a lot were when refi's and sales were at such a high volume that the lenders were not even looking at the appraisal for the most part.Getting back to the role of the lender -- all lenders are subjecting appraisals to close scrutiny, first applying certain measurements to the basic facts, and then sending it to appraisal review when it does not meet the standards of these new guidelines (and they do not meet them A LOT right now.)It doesn't matter what the realtor feels it is worth or sometimes even what the buyer is willing to pay, unless they have deep pockets to put down a larger down payment to make up the difference they cannot finance -- the lender will have tremendous influence over the value simply because they control the purse strings.