I swear to God I could have told her that underwriting asked her for a cell phone selfie of her and her cat eating a carrot, and she would have uploaded it within 10 minutes, no questions asked about "why does underwriting need this?"

Older homes tend to eat cash flow.

It will be a place to eat, find entertainment, office space for work which will turn into employees looking for a place to rent.

How many people have gone ahead and bought a property that cash flowed negative/break-even when analyzed using 50% rule under FHA terms (upfront & monthly PMI charges eat up a big chunk of expenses)? 

The idea was we can't eat our mortgage should things go south.  

Plus, good cash flowing turnkey props aren't often to be found in those markets precisely because of the high values - the PITI eats up the returns.On rare occasion, of course, even a good TK provider may need to charge a sales price that's a tad over the appraised value, but not by $20k.

Why would your highlighted cell be the yellow one with "eating out"?

Short of that, you're probably going to have to eat the cost of the cleanup.

If I were in your position I would have my cake and eat it too.

If something works I'd buy, but I personally can't afford to eat the losses until rents catch up in the hot markets in the coastal cities.