OK, all kidding aside, there is a very real difference between a Traditional Real Estate Agent (TREA for short) and an Investor Friendly Real Estate Agent (IFREA for short).

@Stanley Kong  There are disclaimers on listings.. any item on a listing is subject to second party verification.I really like the big bold one on the Charleston SC MLS system" if square footage is important measure"  this clearly denotes sq. ft. is estimated if you want it exact you need to do your own measuringIn the foreclosure or distressed asset business some of the best deals are when the bank or seller mis states sq ft..

But, for the time being I'll be doing more traditional statistical analyses, albeit with an emphasis on the Bayesian.

In that scenario, people will not be able to afford every day items let alone real estate.

Dont forget that Texas has very strong laws on returning security deposits. you have 30 days to refund the remaining security deposit and provide an itemized list of everything that was not returned.Failure to provide both the itemized list and the check in that 30 day time frame could open you up to treble damages.

I have been doing things the traditional way by finding a property, going to look at it 3 days later when I get off work, and then putting in an offer a day latter.

We are on a limited budget for this line item so looking for a long term partner in this respect that is not trying to retire on one or two jobs.

Most banks (if they even do construction loans), will require a 700+ credit score and 20% down on the hard costs of land acquisition + construction.Here is what I'm thinking:1) Get a pre-approval for my customers for a traditional loan2) Get some sort of equity down from the customer (cash or land) so they've got skin in the game3) Do an appraisal on the after construction value of their home4) Assuming the numbers work out and we're covered in the event that the original customer can't close, build their home for them with us fronting the money5) Sell them the home at completionI have two questions for you all:1) Do you think a hard money or private lender would be interested in this, assuming I'm offering 12% interest on their money for the 3-4 month build time2) Do you see any legal problems with taking money from the customer and then selling the property to someone else if the customer screws their credit up during the build and is unable to close?

He'll have to save an additional $44k in a year to do a traditional mortgage?

A lot of traditional lenders don't really understand HM and how it works.