The new lending atmosphere

My wife and I started buying properties in 1993 shortly after I started my real estate career.  We didn't have 2 nickles to rub together but we negotiated owner financed 2nd mortagages and other creative methods to build a portfolio of 6 rental homes.  The market at the time was not good.  There was a Savings and Loan scandle and the government had formed the RTC to liquidate properties.  I was a young, 100% commissioned agent with little or no savings,but banks did not seem to have a problem loaning me 100's of thousands of dollars.  I remember when I was putting together a mental business model I was hoping for 3% appreciation on the homes.  During the early 90's when the tech bubble burst and my retirement savings plummeted, the appreciaion I was seeing on the rental homes were the only thing that helped me sleep.

My job relocated me in the early 90's about 1.5 hours away from my rental homes so they became a little more difficult to manage, so during 05-08 as they became vacant I sold them off and the proceeds helped to seed some college accounts and other investments, and gave us a small cash cushion in savings. At the time the homes were seeing 10%+ appreciation.

From my perspective the time is right to restock my personal portfolio.  As a sales person and sales manager we learn to create urgency in buyers to act now for fear of loss.  Well the fear of loss is real in me now.  I see a huge window of opportunity to start buying at bargain prices to rent out the homes till the market turns.  I can think of many homes that can be had at cents on the dollar and rent for positive cash flow.

The hoops and documentation I have been asked to jump through have been over the top.  I am realistic and can appreciate responsible lending and not expecting money on a handshake in todays market.  I respect, in a way, that the institution that has my money is being responsible, but I really feel like I have been put through the ringer and have been in underwriting since Feb 23rd.  If this one goes through there are others I would like to buy,  the only thing making me gun shy is the cononoscopy I am going through now.