Locations like the one you describe tend to be favored by that camp.

High RE prices in SoCal work in your favor as an agent; same effort, bigger commission checks.

I have a bunch of equity in my home and found a place that will do a HE Loan of 125% of the LTV (https://www.sdfcu.org/home-equity-loans), but the rates and terms are less favorable than most traditional HELOC's.  

I will not comment on the lawyer letter thing, as I pretty flagrantly ignore and disregard lawyers on anything that is a timing issue in favor of what our in-house compliance people say.

In fact, you should get more favorable prices with these contractors, vs those who are used to doing high end specialty work for the average consumer.2.

A loan on your primary residence will give you the most favorable rates.If you'd like to increase the number of houses you own, I would recommend keeping the home you have instead of selling.  

Also, a month to month lease can work in your favor.

In future he can always refinance if the interest rates are favorable.  

(I favor carpet.)His reasoning was the cost and longevity, as opposed to carpet.Does anyone have the same or different take on the type of flooring to use?

For us, we shifted focus towards the U.S. as we found cap rates and cashflow figures to be much more favorable.