All agreed that we would much rather use our company as the front man (if you will) and then use a viable agreement/contract to list purpose, profit allocation, rights (including voting) and obligations of persons under agreement, amendment and dissolution criteria, and duration of joint venture. 

Then we see owners in trouble because they have been caught by the city.

A good lender will be able to use this.Well it appears that our Sub2 seller was never able to find a good lender then.

If you truly plan to live in the house as your primary residence, then you can put that down on your application.

If you don’t have anyone to leave anything to, then yes, you can find investing beyond “having enough” pointless.

Now I am there about 2-3 times a year or as needed for large things like an A/C replacement.Once you have a great cleaner and handy person, then you don't really need to go over that often.We are about 7 hours from our place so it isn't a crazy drive.

Then I get a written estimate for a local storage locker with a similar amount of square feet of storage because in my state the tenant must pay the reasonable costs of storage before taking possession of the personal property.It might take longer than 15 days because the notice may be the time they have to respond, but they may have an additional amount of time to pay.  

Since then, we've been fairly flat as rates stabilized around 7%.

Then that means we need a "non-traditional" loan (those do exist...but not at banks - again, usually).  

But then, I just read the signs of the times, no special insider knowledge.