Of course, everyone is a bit touchy about real estate right now.  Lenders are being pickier than they used to be, and some of their new standards are hitting investors more than people who are looking for a primary residence.  For instance, if you are buying something as an investment property, keep in mind that you’ll have to either qualify for both mortgages at the same time, or be able to pay 30 percent down on the investment property, OR have six months of mortgage payments in savings.  Even investors need to be able to afford to pay the mortgage!

Another thing is  to make sure that the homeowners association in the neighborhood where your investment property will be isn’t going to be a problem.  Some HOAs tend to be a bit resentful of investment properties, because people in rentals tend to be more trouble than people in a house they own.  They might expect you to attend meetings, even if you don’t live there, or at least keep up on the issues facing the HOA — good HOA management ought to make this fairly easy to do.

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