"Federally related" that will be consumer loans sold in the secondary market, GSE (fannie, freddie, FHA, VA, USDA, HUD programs) mortgages as well as any loan from an insured institution, so any bank loan is federally related. 

Reading these guys books really helped me get a decent foundation from an investing perspective when I jumped into multi-family.This one here from the Appraisal Institute is really great too. http://www.appraisalinstitute.org/the-valuation-of-apartment-properties-second-edition/Good luck and go get 'em!

The suit between your buyer and another lender may carry a bit of concern with another lender too, the nature of that needs to be known, if the institution lost and was clearly involved in some illegal or bad practice, it may be overlooked, if there were contributory issues on their part and in the end, they won, it may be viewed differently.

Isn't a VOD issued by the banking institution that you have your funds sitting in?

With that said, O.F. a property (and doing it properly) can increase the price you get for the property because it opens it up to a larger pool of buyers...buyers who can not get institutional financing and therefore will pay a higher interest rate with terms more favorable to the seller.Most investors balloon the payment in 5 to 7 years, but you could certainly do a straight 30 year amortization with no balloon.Some states are judicial foreclosure states and some are non-judicial foreclosure states (like Texas), so you would have to address that with a real estate attorney before you consider O.F. 

If you try to refinance with the same institution I doubt they give you cash out within a 12 month period (after stabilization).  

A lot of the loan officers in these institutions are on a low base salary and make bonuses when they close loans.

I have worked on buildings that were developed by institutional or commercial owners.I currently have 2 properties.  

Any time someone knows your name, banking institution and account number they can create fake checks.  

Has anyone dealt with a low down renovation loan offered by a finicial institution other than fha 203k?