You might want to visit this thread as well regarding holding guidelines for 1031 exchange properties: http://forums.biggerpockets.com/viewtopic.php?

I'm talking about all the legal stuff.

One of the keys to a smooth short sale is to find out the pay-off and any additional fees i.e. homeowner's, legal, taxes ect...upfront.

Hi;Please help me, if you can.After lasting 8 months legal case, I was left without any income, present or future , and what I saved is condominium in California, 500,000-600,000 worth, clean and free, but also this is my only home, where I am living for the last 15 years.I was talking to 4 different loan agents about my option for the loan .Local places, chosen random from Yellow Pages.Knowing my data, all of them gave to me the same loan amount for which I can qualify ($400,000) and more and less similar , very low in my opinion, payments options, basing on 30 years loan.($2200-$2500 range)However, when I checked with large banks, just filling up the application on line, with the same data , result of payment amount is even twice as much comparing with some of the estimates from places I called.Please tell me; are these small companies crooks ?

If someone had a $100,000 legal question, would they deal with it without the help of an attorney?

One of them even uses a respected attorney to do his double closings.I also would ALWAYS recommend getting sound legal advice from a qualified attorney in your state before doing any type of creative real estate investing.I also think communicating unverified or misinformed rumors around real estate laws is a destructive practice and should only be done with the utmost caution and reserve.

Just some comments to flipper 101 as to that land contract transaction that went south.Well it does not surprise me since anybody can bind the other and to split the legal title with the seller and equitable title going to the vendee or buyer can lead to diasterous results on the title on the property if the buyer claims an equitable interest which he has..and getting a tenant out if he defaults can proves to be a nightmare and how he binded you by encumbering the property is unbelievable.If you suggest using an outside entity such as a trustee why not just use a land trust and get all the benefits of using that enitity and thus by the trustee holding bot the legal and equitable title called the doctrine of equitable conversion now you have a situation where not other party can take advantage of one another and you would all vote to your designated trustee on any and all affairs of the trust property due to it being a beneficiary directed trust so you must ALL be in agreement, sure avoids litigation and disputes and no one can circumvent you on your investment.I know that feeling of getting burned which is why I use land trusts in my investing since all parties are equally protected in any given transaction.We all made our mistakes in this business..that is for sure..

The guideline above will insure the borrower is motivated, experienced.

I have never taken out a loan (not a legal one at least, I did borrow $1,500 from my folks once and paid them back every cent of it.)

I'm not sure what he can do, but I know that the US has about the worst legal system I've ever seen.