Hi David thanks for getting back to me, its funny you mentioned kindskiptracing.com i came across them in the past few days... they seem to have some really good deals on skip tracing leads, especially for someone just starting off (pay as you go).

Many times the owners can not be found or if they are they want nothing to do with it and in a lot of cases if found, I pay them for a quit claim.

Everyone seems to talk about including the costs of the new mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance & capital reserves, and the vacancy projections when looking at realistic cashflow, which we already do for all the properties in our rental portfolio.But we, like many, cant find properties that are making any cashflow sense right now.

Do you open an account to escrow your tax costs or is there another way?

I think I just need to find someone that will loan me what my house is worth and charge me some super high interest rate that I don't mind paying and give me a 3-6month window to buy a new place and sell this one (which have been selling in my area within a week) and payback the loan/interest.

.* Talk to your tax professional and find out what your tax implications are from inheriting the property to buying out your brother and putting it in an LLC, etc. * Also find out if the property's tax assessment changes with any of the scenarios above.

The fact that title insurance includes defense expense is a great lesson in why chosing NOT to purchase owners coverage is stupid.Of course if the court doesn't award the easement, the title insurer would likely pay out on the title claim based upon the lack of access.

You also have to consider your holding costs - you are paying HOA fees, insurance, and property taxes.

Negative cash flow is not something I’d be okay with, but I know there are some instances where people are okay with taking a small hit for a big pay off with the appreciation (and hopes that the rent will go up).

If you plan to pay down quickly, splitting into two loans makes more sense because you can attack the more expensive loan with the extra principal payments and rapidly change the weightings, reducing the blended rate with each payment (fyi - most investment property 2nd liens will have prepay penalties).