@Jonathan Greene, I suppose that if we bought a rent-ready place, it would be harder to snowball with another place later on, since our capital would all be tied up in that one property. 

I currently live in the metro ATL area, but have history and ties in Charlotte and Chapel Hill (Both NC).For work, we focus on logistics, senior care, and manufacturing.

It does NOT matter if the lender reports to your credit report or not (your tax returns will show the property and even if not on tax returns lenders use services showing the property tied to you.

And I am here to learn, because I’m facing a very similar scenario, age 57, equity tied up in all paid off properties.

But it has been about 2 weeks since the seller passed and the seller's estate has not given any information to my relator or the title company.Given that the estate is contractually obligated to the sale & that I have money tied up in the deal (earnest money, home inspection cost, interest), I am looking for advice to move this forward and/or a suggestion for a real estate attorney in Cincinnati.

I'm sure he's expecting me to come back and negotiate something more but we are both very new at this and I have no idea what would be an appropriate value for the risk and the time my money would be tied up in this. 

Real Estate market is similar to other market, which is unpredictable, nobody can predict the future clearly, And it is tied to other market to, positively or negatively.So the overall market may go up 20% next year, but here is where you need to distinguish be smart and being lucky.

From what I'm gathering on this thread, though, it seems like there wouldn't be anything to "preapprove" if the intent is to use a portfolio loan; you'd have to have a performing asset in place in order to demonstrate an ability for the investor or LLC holding the property to pay back the loan, and you'd run the risk of leaving all your capital tied up in the property if you were ultimately unable to get approved for that portfolio loan when the time came. 

For example, even though it was little unit, inspector required whole unit tied fire alarm.  

What I have to work with: - An LLC (currently just run STR taxes through this)- A Type S Corp (I run my ad business through this, but will shift it over to construction)- A General Contractors license in the state of Oregon, tied to Type S Corp (have had and maintained since July of 2022)- A construction skillset.