The alternative is for them to add me to their credit cards, and for them to open up a bank account jointly with me.

I don't think any other type of home has any obligation to.An alternative to pulling out is to adjust the offer price, so you can have some leeway to cover repairs from your own pocket and have a lower down/monthly payment...Perhaps even from a 203k repair loan.4) If I decide to make an offer on as-is property, and the inspection uncovers some issues, can I back out and get my initial deposit?

I will be looking at this one next week as an alternative consideration and/or comparison.

Will Barnard, Thanks, and everyone else that have suggested other alternatives to make it work.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm right, I think one of the issues in your perspective might be that you're treating property investing as a substitute for work or other standardised income streams - I think it's more realistic to think of it as either a savings scenario, where you try to get the best return rates possible at the minimum possible risk, or alternatively, as supplementary income to an existing stream.Living off your investments completely normally means you either have a very large and lucrative portfolio (which, indeed, takes years to build), or that you've somehow turned it into a full time business, such as being a realtor, buyers agent, fixer/flipper, builder/developer etc - but that's a whole different yarn that should be correctly titled "running a realty related business" as opposed to "investing in real estate".Again, if any of my assumptions are wrong, please correct me.

Property converted from personal use to business use in the same or later tax year may qualifyProperty required to be depreciated under the alternative depreciation system (ADS).Property included in a class of property for which you elected not to claim the special depreciation allowance.Certain restaurant property placed in service after December 31, 2008.Certain retail improvement property placed in service after December 31, 2008.Property for which you elected to accelerate certain credits in lieu of the bonus depreciation allowance.

Just offering some advice on a possible alternative so that you aren't parted so easily with your cash.

The range of alternatives (lease/option, land contract, seller-carried mortgage) all have different implications for this situation.Sean Merant, what are the documents from the closing?

Put an ad on Craigslist and you will get a list of folks with snakes and a pickup.The alternative is to buy stocks, bonds or commodities.

You might think that just comes from working harder longer, but not so much as smarter.I'm afraid this is getting way to long, but it will tie together....You must set up your business that is appropriate for your skills, financing capacity, the population served, the market for your product and be able to compete against the alternative opportunities your customer base may have.