This 2% cap on seller covering closing costs must be new because we were sellers last summer and up to 3% was the deal with one lender (bank groups).Three investment properties refied with stated income loans (rate and term) for 6% rate closed the first week in January.

The title insurance is normally the lenders and the owners policy that they cover.

In so doing, they can cover 100% of the total project costs including, in most cases, monies the developer has already expensed for soft costs, pre-development, etc.

It might not have been a nuts and bolts book, but it covered a lot of things; good overview for those with minimal knowledge of the subjects.

Then just be sure that your total income will cover whatever you plan to buy, and you'll be guaranteed to get the mortgage.

They Screen the contractors, make sure they are licensed, bonded and insured, and you can even look at reviews.Its a good resource.

As a general rule, I would recommend having at the very least enough reserve money on hand to cover 6 to 12 months worth of mortgage payments.

After you have worked on the property it may have a FMV of 150,000 so they would give an 80% loan for 120,000 and look at it as having a 30,000 equity position to cover any loss.

It's the buyer's where they are borrowing enough in the loan to cover (eg. up to 3% of their closing costs)\The sales price is increased on the contract to allow this but then when you balance out those extra (buyers) closing costs may not fit the allowed transaction.

With that unit filled, I should be able to cover all expenses and have about $100/mo cash flow (which will go directly into an acct to save up for any repairs down the line first; once that's built to my satisfaction, it'll go towards paying down the HELOC.)If all goes well with this unit, I hope to buy another by years end.