@Chris Mason @Rory Cummins
just an update. regardless of the financing, a property walkthrough proved this to be a poor investment for what i want to achieve. i did email my finance guy what you said, Chris, and he wrote back this. seems to be a combination of his underwriting guidelines and the uncommonness of the property:
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With regards to this California guy who seems to have lots of “single family residences with a detached accessory dwelling units” in his neighborhood (which might be an accurate description, but is a tongue tangler and not really used in common vernacular), Columbus unfortunately does not, so these types of properties are difficult, if not impossible to find comparable sales nearby and in the last 6 months, so they really can’t be appraised. As I understand the way guidelines read, some properties could fit conventional loan guidelines, but only if the 2nd unit provides minimal value to the property. In other words, if you have a $500,000 home with a cottage or guest house in the back, and the appraiser only gives the guest house minimal ($40,000 maybe???) value, then you could get conventional financing for that property. Ideally, there would also be lots of good comparable sales with guest cottages on them, too though!
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/shrug
onward and upward!
