It should always be in writing.

I certainly did not, and neither did the mortgage lender who  pre-qualified me.After closing on the HELOC  this week, I was reading through the docs last night and stumbled upon the Occupancy clause :"Borrower shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower's principal residence for at least one year after the date of occupancy, unless Lender otherwise agrees in writing, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, or unless extenuating circumstances exist which are beyond Borrower's control"So I'm not sure what to do.  

Wow that is the first thing I have seen you write that I disagree with and I couldn't disagree more strongly.

You could literally write up your own deed restriction to a property you own and then go down and record it; regardless of whether that deed restriction is legal or enforceable.Hell, in some areas, older homes still have deed restrictions limiting the sale of properties to non-negros only.

I write about it all the time on my blog at www.TheRedPillInvestor.com! 

But we shook hands and agreed on a very modest non-refundable deposit and agreed to put everything in writing Monday or Tuesday.

Hi BP NationI am a full time software engineer working in downtown Chicago.

Buying at the top you only typically get principal pay down and some tax write offs.

I've read a few books and listen to the BiggerPockets podcast frequently trying to learn what I can.I have begun writing up a goal, plan and putting together spreadsheets using a lot of information from The ABC's of Real Estate Investing.

This caused problems because during the prequalifying process the lender said our loan amount should be fine, but 2 weeks before closing she informed us that it was a high cost loan and they could not write it for 20% down.