Daniel,Conventional mortgage loans generally don't contain a prepayment penalty, as you have mentioned.Generally, your best course of action is to send two separate checks, one for the payment, the second marked "Principal Payment", along with a letter stating it as such. 

From my experience, if you're under the 42% mark on debt to gross income and have a good credit score you should be good.

Mark Mosch thank you for the reply and honest feedback.

@Mark S.

Watch this quick video on ABC10 News for an overview of the trends going on in Sacramento from all the Bay Area migration:http://www.abc10.com/news/local/sacramento/what-you-need-to-know-if-you-want-to-buy-or-rent-in-sacramento/434803817Here's the summary:- People are moving to Sacramento from the Bay Area- We don't have enough housing inventory to meet the demand- So rents and home prices continue to increaseSkip to the 0:40 mark to watch the property manager state that he has tenants willing to sign leases before even seeing the property hahahaha."

Do you know someone who may be willing to do that for a small mark up?

hi @James CapovillaIf you are looking at cashflow and recycle deposit you are going to have to find stuff with a twist at the moment, like renovation or maybe new build (due to the lower deposit rules for new build)The only problem at the moment is being nearer the top rather than the bottom of a market cycle at the moment not much will be available for that much under the ARV.As for sourcing agents(buyers agents), we work with a couple down here and who are nationwide, Mark Honeybone at Property Ventures and @nick gentle at iFindproperty.K

The only potential issue I see with HELOC to fund buy and hold is that HELOCs typically have 10 year interest only period (draw) and 15 year amortization period.This means that you CAN refinance at the 10 year mark to have flexibility but that assumes the market will bear the refinance and you cant control timing well.

congratulations on your success @Mark Ferguson !

Also keep in mind that the stain needs to be applied quickly so if the brand you use is too thick as the contractor complained about then you might have some marks everywhere they "stopped".