I have found that they markets are completely over saturated and state and local governments are continuing to implement laws making it more difficult.

Another problem is the city government, they will tear your home apart to find things wrong with it to feel good about being an inspector.

For those suggesting alternative heating fuels, here is a link to a spreadsheet provided by the federal gov't to evaluate best choices:http://www.eia.gov/neic/experts/heatcalc.xls

@Chris Heeren The landlord has a right to withhold a security deposit for any of several reasons, such as if the tenant:damaged the premises beyond ordinary wear and tear;caused waste or neglect of the premises (such as leaving hot water running in the bathtub for days);didn't pay rent;didn't pay for utility services, whether the landlord provided these or the tenant paid the utility companies directly; ordidn't pay mobile home parking fees that the local government assessed against the tenant.

Hi Karin,The above you mentioned used to be the case with FHA flips that were probably ear marked to be sold to Wells Fargo as one of their secondary market conditions was two appraisals if the sales price was 20% or higher than the acquisition cost when documenting the 24 month chain of title.I understand your frustration, they (Wells) just want to make sure that banks on the origination front do their proper due dilligence with valuation and documentation of the value to ensure that they will not have to buy back that paper from the correspondent lender (unless your dealing directly with Wells Fargo).Its hard unless you ask but if you find a banker who is originating loans and directly selling/servicing their government loans to Ginnie Mae(GNMA) then they may not require you to have the two appraisal and additional procedures because its not necessarily a GNMA requirement but rather banks on the front lines trying to reduce their risk and requiring these additional steps from you to protect their behinds.Generally you may find that on Flips they may need the appraiser to go out and certify that the property also passes FHA's health and safety standards as well so dont be surprised (double strapped water heater, CO detectors, etc).In the past I've had to show excel break downs of work done, invoices, bill of sale's, and others too but that was back when New American Funding sold the paper to WF (not any longer =).

NA Cummins you will have to pay penalty plus taxes on both, federal and state level and depending on your tax bracket combined this would be as much as 40% in some cases.I agree with you that you need to get out of debt first before you start investing, but not at this cost.

Pre-foreclosures are an area that is highly regulated by federal law with serious teeth, you may not advise or assist in this area unless you are a certified credit counselor by HUD or an attorney, this is not an areas for new investors without having professional assistance.

I wish the moderators started to crack down on discussions about scamming government rules.

Basically, the government matched your contributions in the amount of your marginal tax rate.When you borrow from the plan, you are repaying the principal with after-tax money.  

The other thing Grant said on the podcast, and I think it's a really good start - focus on the blue states first (big government = big headaches).