@Don Konipol has given you a great background/info.You need to pick a niche and dig a deep moat around your specialty.

The technical answer is that if you are obligated on a liability such as your brother's lease, you would need to show that he has paid the rent on time from his own funds for 12 months in order to exclude the debt from your liabilities.

Rather than compete with those buyers, we began looking for lots on which to build new construciton, as that had been our niche for decades anyway. 

I am a genetic DREAMER (Dad was the same way - got it from him - but he has never been able to make it happen) whom has found a couple niche's!

You’re probably talking 1% of the market while 2 bedrooms make up something like 50%Look at it this way do you want to be competing with 98% of the market or have yourself a niche?

But technically, there should not be any external fee for a recast either (no new recording, tax fee, appraisal, lender title insurance, closing, etc...).Right now, most lenders are overwhelmed with applications and they may not have the time to entertain anything that is out of the ordinary.

Zips and towns vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and a lot of people find their niche area and focus there.

If I recall the news stories correctly and before it became all Covid all the time NYC dumped some the worst into cities adjacent to NYC, much to the chagrin of the locals.If that's you niche. well than go for it.

I think you can technically file a quit claim deed with the county on a property you have a loan on, but I don't see how there would be any protection for you as you would still be on the hook for the loan.  

Are there other options out there for new home buyers who are only a few months away from having all the technical 'rubber stamp' items a traditional lender requires?