I think she's the type that works because she has to and not because she has the time/ability...So, here's an update - I decided to hire her on and pay her $2,000 per closed transaction given she meets my "under writing" requirements (cma, contractor bid, specific buying guidelines - area, condition, etc).

I would like to tell the truth and state that I am working with several investor partners, but it may hinder my ability to secure deals.

My guess is that it has to do with lender/creditor comfort as well as their ability to manipulate the Yen (much like the US and Chinese).

If you could convince them to accept, say $50K (and you have the ability to pay that $50K) you might have some value.

Good ol' trial and error...Thing is, with real estate, most of us don't have the financial ability to make too many mistakes.

As Bill pointed out, if you're planning to rent it out, as long as everything is working, you probably don't want to replace anything.But, if you're planning on flipping it (reselling it), then you're going to want to ensure that anything you don't do isn't going to negatively impact your ability to resell it.

I used them a lot when I lived in CO and found the vendors to be legitimate - especially as their ability to get future work depends on your rating of them.

I know that there are people here who have said this isn't legal, but no one has ever been able to provide any evidence that a deed restriction such as this is in violation of any law.Deed restrictions are perfectly legal, and restricting resales through a deed restriction is nothing out of the ordinary, and not just with REO sales (I have a friend who inherited a house when he was younger, and the house came with a deed restriction restricting his ability to sell the house until he was a certain age).I don't know any way around the restriction, and while I don't know for certain what the penalty might be, I would assume they could come after any profits at the very least.

Sorry Zach, no, all conventional loans on non-owner occupied need to show the ability to pay the loan.

As @Chris Mason mentioned, the ability to hold here is extremely important.