Maggie,If your husband is going to use it occasionally I would buy it as a second home so you only need to put 10% down.

This can become dicey and should be paid attention to when buying a property.

It's difficult navigating the home purchase process in general, but a lot of more difficult buying something with costly surprises you didn't plan for. 

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator – so, they often select the first PMC they call or that calls them back!

I'll share that with her and maybe even try it myself.I'd like to give you a call with a CRE question, as well.

When buying a note at a discount (e.g. $100k performing I/O note for $90k), how do you classify the extra principal you get back when the loan matures?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. there's a lot of ways like petitioning, confidential sale price, buying other assets to offset and depreciating them in year one, etc. but the main way I would do it is to invest in ground up developments with tax abatements which pushes even higher cash flow and then to keep them as retained earnings or in a non taxable structure depending on your equity position.

You don't usually get to inspect the property before buying so you take a large risk.

If you do don't stop buying.

To follow up on this thread with a little more info I've found since my last post:Found someone in our area that will do new construction VA loans - they were with this company:www.annie-mac.comMaybe they have loans in other areas, might be worth a call.