We have hard money lenders all over the United States as well as traditional lenders.

Are you comparing war zones with suburbs?

Not much for accuracy....however...Zillow will show you comparable homes based on recent sales listsings.

Charlie Swindall aka Gladhatter here from beautiful hills near Clintwood Virginia USA.Bit about me is we are the last of the the traditional ultra custom hand made hat makers in the world.

For your main home, I always say to go traditional, Fixed 15, 20, or 30 year mortgages are best.

An appraiser will base his/her opinion on the sale of properties in the area, comparible to the subject property within the last 6 to 9 months.

HOWDY YALLGarGus it sounds like the Austin area is making a good comeback or at least the start of one.I remember when I took my ABR over there everyone was dealing with contract wars and then the high tech crash came.BCS is still riding the wave and building is going on everywhere.Especially in the commercial arena.Land has gone up steadily which has escalated prices but this area is still undervalued compared to most of the places folks are coming from.It is common to see people buying with a good chunk left over from their out of state sales proceeds.Investors in rental properties are not as happy as they once were as the escalated prices are making it hard to get a good return without putting more in.The junker market has alot of inventory for those that rehab.Some Ive seen as low as 22000.The lots are usually good size.(10000 sq ft and bigger).Locations most of the time are iffy.High end rehabs are coming into the picture more now.Wealthy College kids live in and trash expensive homes that their folks buy and then wind up selling them cheap to cut their losses.Ilove this country.Well im off to NYC for 2 weeks of R&R with the family.Hope yall write a bunch of clean deals while I'm gone.Adios.Jennysh thanks for the website on your condo hotel its a beauty!

A comparible lot sold for 800000 and the builder put up 4 townhouses on it.

He also suggested traditional mortgages as an option, but we would never reside there- that wouldn't be possible; would it?

If the market rate is really that high they won't have anywhere to go that is less expensive but might leave for comparable rents just for the "screw that" factor.My thoughts are to jack it up over three years, which will still build some resentment but may keep the tenants.Like you said, "It's not a hobby."