There is no hard and fast rule to determine whether you are a dealer or whether you are just an investor, however, if your primary source of income is from flipping a bunch of houses every year, you will probably get called a dealer.

I know it depends on a bunch of things, but looking for general rules of thumb (incl labor).

I'm not personally aware of any rule that says you cannot do a cash out refi immediately after purchasing the property....

So is this a federal tax rule, or is it state-to-state variation?

Also, I have no idea what the laws/regulations are in your state, so if there is a local rule preventing anything more than 6%, then ignore me.

However, you MUST understand the rules and laws associated with these types of deals.

Welcome aboard shovel; I was with you all the way through the post, agreeing with the bad FNMA rules, until I read the next to last sentence; And by the way.

The magistrate ruled that the landlord couldn't charge rent on a property that was not habitable and not being maintained (as required by law) by the owner.2.

The rule of thumb a lot of folks here use is expenses are 50% of rent.

One of my rules is that I do not want to invest in an area where my Property Manager would need to gun to be able to go into the neighborhood at night alone.