If you plan on doing some work to increase the property's value, your best bet would be to buy with a 3.5% down FHA loan and refinance to a conventional in the future to drop the PMI (assuming you have the equity of course).

I don't know Tampa but I bet within 90 minutes there are properties that would make good rentals.  

Effectively you're bribing the listing agent with a larger commission check, and betting on them being unethical enough to consider this before considering her clients' best interests.If you're relatively knew, I'd suggest having a shark on your side before diving into the shark tank. 

, you bet the state will have a problem with it.

I bet half or more of those living on the streets were never tenants in the market they came to the west on a new version of the gold rush ..

For your question about investing out of state, David Greene wrote Long Distance Real Estate Investing, which is probably your best bet if you are planning that route. 

the HELOC will be based on appraised value...appraisals are hard to predict, but you have a huge equity position...so even if it comes back conservative, you should be good...credit unions are your best bet...better on fees and higher LTV....but you should shop to confirm.The alternative for you is putting a loan in place and using the delayed finance exception...try to take cash out.

Your best bet is to serve a 5 day notice to pay or quit on the second of the month, (unless your state does not allow it).

If you look at the past 10 years, it's an easy argument to make that having assets in a no load index fund would have been a good bet.

Wanna bet?