You could buy up quite a bit of vacant land, transactions are simpler, maintenance costs are far less and government involvement is at a minimum.

Just watch the government's huge bureaucratic overhead make their rents 10% higher than us small players resulting in thousands of empty FNMA and FDMC rentals.

This subject comes up all the time my sujestion is to find an appraiser or underwritter ask to sit down and tell you what they look for on all appraisals, the appraisal is ment for the lender and the guidelines are in place by the two government agencies.

Ditto with Ginnie Mae (FHA, VA) and other government (Farmers, USDA) that will not lend to LLCs.

Jeff - you are correct though, the government may very well takes steps that "helps" investors.

I'm quite positive a government agency is not going to deal directly with the public without an agent being in the middle to handle the paperwork.

Planning, dealing with municipalities and governing agencies, funding, insuring...Hiring labor.

Our wonderful government knew this was a problem for a long time before they put a stop to it, and now it's a cash cow to them...

And, consider the general attitude by government toward "investors" as currently reflected by other regulatory actions, they may not be too receptive to funding a single home purchase.Just my initial reactions from skimming the materials and the bill, I have not given it much thought and there may be a way to establish an entity for investors to go into that would deal with you, as a seperate entity.

Taxes are 6800.00My big hangup is coming up with 25% down as I am governed by the fannie mae stricter guidelines as I have 5 properties.