If you don't have a buyers agreement signed with them it makes it even more difficult for them to be on your side because they are basically a representative of the seller.

Also you will lose your "annual increase in assessment" cap when it ceases to be your homestead.Your last line says it all: My other concern is that keeping this as a rental forces me to buy the new house with an 80/20.

I'm sure it's probably on the up and up but convincing an American buyer would be difficult...

For example in Chicago, it is difficult to find a deal that cashflows on the northside or suburbs, but head south or even to NW Indiana, and you can pay retail and still cashflow.

If you do this it will be much more difficult to get properties under contract in the future, but with effort it can be accomplished.

The cap rate I think is 6.5% and Cash on Cash is only 3%.

One thing for sure is having a reale state business makes corporate lending sometimes difficult as its considered very risky.

The cap rate I think is 6.5% and Cash on Cash is only 3%.

Here in Hawaii, where rents are much higher than the national average (we're actually highest in the country according to many surveys/studies), it's difficult that repairs and other associated costs could take that big a chunk out of the high cost of the rent.

That's not real expensive and I've done some of them myself.I've seen older places that the service panel was sufficient but it's probably not, probably from $900-$2K to fix that.Older houses don't have nearly enough outlets per foot of wall space, again it's not difficult but if the electrian is there he can do those too.