On a recent one, we needed $7k added back, I felt we had $9500 in clear "one time" stuff, the underwriter came up with $4200 and we had to fight/escalate to get a smidgen over $7k to make the deal work (this was a refi of some other property to save a few bucks a month, not a purchase mortgage, so I felt OK about taking this risk). 

Where could you be creative and get the most bang for your buck?

the other thing if its  a owner occ type loan there could be mortgage insurance.. and most banks sell their owner occ loans anyway.. now if your doing what @Levi T. talked about and going after commercial assets.. this was possible years back.my personal banker was in charge of their OREO and I got the list every week.. and bought a few subdivisioins from them they took back .. but this is small commercial bank where I knew the owners of the bank personally IE president and head credit officer.. and my banker is in charge of all the loan officers... and has banked me 24 years.. so yes its who you know.bigger multi billion dollar banks doing owner occ you can pretty much foregeta bout buying those in todays market.they want as stated to establish if they get a mortgage insurance claim and or they want to maximize profits.. there is simply not as much hangover inventory.. and or they will then sell off notes.. 

Hey BP,

Does anyone have any tips using public records for pre for-closures ? Has any had any luck getting a generated list from the county ?

$35 bucks and very portable.

I am hoping to achieve scale through multi-family homes. 

Here are some options I'm considering:Rent out my condo, buy a duplex and live in one unit, rent out the other.Sell my condo, buy a larger multi unit like atriplex or quad, live in one unit, rent out the others.Rent out my condo, buy another 2 bedroom condo or townhouse, and rent out the spare bedroom through AirBnb.Please let me know your thoughts!

An example, our last major land deal was the entitlement and sale of land for a 453 unit apartment project on 16 acres to Lennar's Multi-Family Communities Investment arm last year.

FHA backed multi-family mortgages have outrageously good terms (85% LTV, 35 year fixed term, rock-bottom rates, non-recourse.)

Michael:  I paid $500 bucks for some remodeling plans (yucca valley architect who is quas-retired) and he connected me to engineer/ and Title 24 guy  (new construction also requires soil test engineering and sometimes water flow testing for the water district)but I think 1000-1500 is probably  low end and 3500-5000 is high endI'm working on a hew house in pioneertown and I'm interviewing builders/general contractors (who have plans in their archives that were approved) -many plans approved in 2015 aren't valid.. because of the Title 24 increases every year and the 2016 codeNathan: exciting. yucca NEEDS some new apartments!