That being said, I bought one house that has not produced well.

If the contractor countersues, wins big, and all the homeowners end up with huge assessments, you may end up in a position of not being able to repay the loan and they don't want unhealthy collateral they will have trouble selling.  

It sounded like I would be getting him in trouble if he knew and he actually went through approving the mortgage.

Ask them to show you where the rule is written and they wont be able to produce anything.

They are good for what they do which is produce cash flow.

Because it's in a rural area I'm having trouble finding out if it has flooded in the past.

Looks like we won't have trouble getting them rented out to new people, so I'm going to see how things go once I put my foot down about no smoking, cleaning up after dogs, and the rent amount.

Even if the multi-unit is owner occupied, if you are producing income, they want their slice of the cake.

The free sites produce better results. 

So I have not begun investing yet, but hope to as soon as possible.I hear from a lot of investors that they buy their first property, and then have trouble securing loans for the next 2 years, because they cannot count rental income towards a mortgage.