Pick what fits your dreams, then get intimate with it!

Think in terms of "use of credit" rather than in terms of strict ratios.These adjustments to underwriting are basically compensating factors taken into consideration, at a point in time, under current economic conditions, flowing with the housing and bond market, they can open the gates and close them later on. 

My partner and I are both intimately involved in the business. 

In one instance I did not notify them in time and the payment that was supposed to go to me went to the previous owner.

Many times landlords have ran the properties for years and they are TIRED.Based on all the listings I have had in Multifamily and the stories they tell me I would pay the fee for a great property manager.The benefit to owning a 50 unit or greater is usually you can land a 5% property management fee and the company will have a system in place versus a manager doing 1 house who is "winging it".Saturation rate for the area (competition) for your properties product mix and amenities will be key as well as proximity to jobs,transit,restaurants, medical facilities,etc.I don't worry that the property is vacant.Even in high crime areas it's all relative to price.I would not recommend buying in high crime areas for a novice.I have investor groups who do nothing but this and buy really cheap.Eventually these nodes will be redeveloped and cleaned out if you buy right but you have to know the city plans and intricate workings of the area.Don't listen to a seller telling you when occupied it rented for 600 a unit.Base your numbers off of what the market will be doing after your rehab.If rents were at 600 a unit but based on data have declined 1 percent a month and rents now are at 480 then when rehabbed in another 4 months your lease up might be at 460.Look at the big apartments to see what kind of specials and concessions they are running in the local area to lease up.We could all go on forever with suggestions.You really need to work with someone who has intimate knowledge of the area you want to invest in.When doing vacant or development deals the biggest mistake I see developers and investors make is to do rosy projections that 80% of the time do not go as planned.Plan for the worst but hope for the best.

I'll likely use his money for the full ten year term, and make sure my equity line is emptied in time to pay it off near the end, and then pay the remaining equity line down within two years.

A free open market will have a seller seeking the highest price they can get and the buyer the lowest price with all other terms in consideration such as move in time, location, etc, etc.

I know my ability to borrow is related to my total indebtedness and I was pleasantly surprised to see that a recent pull of my credit on MyFico.com did NOT show the LOC..Is this normal?

So, while a document may not show up in the public records for some time, there is a very small window of time between the execution of a document and it being received by the recorder, if you close at say 11:00 AM, in time to give to the filing clerk, it could be less than an hour for it to be stamped as received.Closing procedures are covered in the American Land Title Association (ALTA) instructions and can be found on the internet.

At one point in time, when AirBnB started, you could reverse engineer the craigslist URLs and basically create an auto generated email back to the poster with your information.