As to my question concerning private lenders, I'm still trying to think of one.....I'm sure I will...

Even those individuals who are facing foreclosure are still concerns with me taking over on payments.

I found my triplex extremely difficult to get decent points/financing 7 years ago and feel it's gotten a little easier.

I came away extremely informed.

As I said, many feel this way until they need that protection.This type of protection is extremely cheap to purchase and hideously expensive to not have when you need it.

I used to get seemingly friendly, but actually condescending remarks from the now McMansion people who were "so concerned" about my future.

One major advantage is you know you are going to get at least part of the rent each and every month.However, these are all run locally and the standards, responsiveness to landlord concerns and issues varies widely from place to place.I don't have any section 8 tenants.

That being said, I have my concerns about a big corporate "dude" coming in when I am a farm boy and should be able to associate with the land owners for sure.

Also, is the knob & tube upstairs something of serious concern?

I'm not concerned so much about keeping the $1000.