If you qualify for traditional financing, that is by far the cheapest.

As rates go up and qualifying standards change next year, I think there will be increased demand for rentals in the near future.

Jumping into an apartment complex without some experience under your belt may be very profitable, but you will lack the fine tuned skills that may handicap your returns while you adjust to the learning curve.Zillow's zestimate can be good too.

If the current homeowner can afford rent after short sale, they should be able to qualify for modification.

I had to qualify for the loan without using rental income, since one can't purchase an REO within the first 14 days as an investor.

However, you cannot create a loss with such a deduction so lets assume the S-Corp only had $12k profit & the qualifying vehicle was $20k.

If she was ever served with a notice of foreclosure, even if the lender did not follow through with the sale, she can't do anything with the property except sell it and payoff the lien.The law allowing for the forgiveness of debt to avoid taxation is about to expire so now that she has waited she may have a tax liability on amounts written off from her underwater property.A short sale would be best, if she qualifies, but to do a short sale the owner must have a financial inability to pay, I'm not sure the bank has to agree if she is sitting on cash.IMO, she needs to pay as agreed, catch up the loan, then lease it over time allowing the value to come back and then sell it. :)

And I do not qualify for the commercial loan they said it is.

I'm seeing a more aggressive stance from what is being claimed by members here on BP, such as cash out refis after 6 months, it must be in areas where property values are going back up at a faster rate in general.On the conservative side, prudent lending practices will be stressed, meaning that a lender may not do so much of those "if it makes sense, we loan it" type deals, it may be tougher for a deal to make sense.All in all, I doubt a qualified borrower will see much of a difference on the street as the new changes will be played out in the operations side of the lenders and their relationships between other lenders and securitized markets.Actually there are more aggressive measures in making a loan, the debt to income for a residential loan has gone from 36% to 43% allowing borrowers to qualify with more debt!

Some agents don't know how to qualify buyers and if nothing happens they blow buyers off out of fustration it's their fault not yours.