Misalignment on scope vs. line items happens more often than most people admit, so you’re not alone there.A couple things I’ve seen work well between draws:Negotiate with contractors to accept partial payments upfront with balance due once the draw hits.Use short-term private money (friends, family, or local investors) to float a portion, secured by the property.Line up business credit (cards or LOCs like you’re doing) but be strategic so interest doesn’t eat your margins.On the line items, the key is communicating with your lender early — if you can show the work is completed and in budget overall, many will be flexible even if the numbers per category don’t match perfectly.

Sewer and water service line insurance are a lot like home warranties or extended warranties.

You’re thinking in the right direction — zero lot line / townhome-style developments can meet a real need in rural and secondary markets, especially where there’s demand for affordable, low-maintenance housing but no new supply.A few ways you might approach testing your vision:Market Feasibility Study: Talk with a local planning department or economic development office to get housing demand data (demographics, household income, and housing stock).

@Autumn Cain thanks for the info.

We talk a lot about the numbers—cash flow, appreciation, and ROI. But sometimes, the biggest impact on your portfolio comes from the less glamorous parts of the business, like maintenance. It’s easy to see it as just ...

There are definitely homes out there that look and feel like townhomes but are technically classified as single-family residences, often with small lots and part of an HOA.In searches, it might help to focus on terms like "single-family home in HOA", "zero lot line", or even just filter by single-family and then narrow down by lot size or community type.

Lines of credit will likely take a bit longer as you'll need 1-2 years worth of experience (and financials) to share in order to obtain the credit.

This is just national numbers.This slowdown reflects a meaningful shift in market dynamics: elevated mortgage rates, detached pricing expectations, and diminished buyer urgency are contributing to substantially slower cycles.For real estate professionals, builders, and investors, this could signal opportunities to recalibrate pricing strategies, marketing approaches, and sales timelines to align with evolving buyer behaviors.The best buying behavior to be apart of is the investor network.For the simple reason that they will continue to buy with no emotional escrow.They don't go by trends, just if the numbers work for today.That's what I love about seeing with Featured Agents on BiggerPockets.They get to tap into the network of BiggerPockets clients right when they are ready to buy...or looking for an agent today to help them acquire more.Here we are, it's going to be Autumn soon.

You need cash, a line of credit, or hard/private money (which is very expensive and dangerous if you are new and don't know what you are doing) to take a deal down. 

We have good credit scores but are worried that down the line we'll have too much debt in our names if keep adding to our portfolio.