In a few months/years, armed with knowledge, you will be in a better position to decide what is the best fit for your needs.You sound like a smart guy with a great head on your shoulders.

Jason, if you plan to hold long term, a second will have more risk in an environment of increasing interest rates (since seconds are an ARM product, not fixed). 

I would have thought SmartMove as an arm of TransUnion would have caught this, but was just informed by their customer service that they only do a check basedon name and where previously lived, NOT by social security number.

Armed with that info you can go back to the company and see if they will rescind the cancellation. 

It was a little tough to finance due to the condition of the exterior, it just took a little bit of shopping around but we ended up doing 25% DP on a 30yr ARM @ 6.8% with a goal of refinancing 6-12 months down the road once the project is completed

Always good to have contractors at arms reach for these things.

Could be ‘starting there’ as an ARM but is think a 30yr fixed will be closer to 6.5% or so I cant give you a timeframe but id get a contractor or multiple to walk through it to give you pricing and timelines, then add some percentage of time and cost onto those projected numbers for buffer. $100k could be high, but it could low.

Stay at arm's length.In transactional type deals where your deal is based on performance of the next transaction, that next transaction is viewed just as their might be, so you're right to verify other parties.

Our real estate arm only operates in FL, so I don't know CO law, but in FL, agents on both side, the listing agent (seller) and the selling agent (buyer) are considered to be "transaction brokers" which come with a different duty to the parties.

LOL.. so crime is very low.. but between them and the Swiss best armed nation in the world.. and their is conscription.. every citizen has to do time in the armed forces between high school and collage.. etc etc.