Are you thinking about the common bank requirement for two years of landlord history prior to using rent income in qualifying ratios.Many HMLs that do fix-and-refi loans want to see that you have a bank pre-approval prior to lending.In a few areas of the country, 2-3 year hard money loans are pretty common; most places it's unheard of.

It’s my understanding that this isn’t unheard of but looking for some direction on if it’s out of the question to get involved with?

I need people I can report this unheard of immoral crime to.

@Melina GorositoAs others have mentioned, it depends on the type of property and financing with which you are dealing.In Canada, origination fees are unheard of for residential properties  - unless you are dealing with an off-market lender (which means you cannot borrow from a bank, credit union or other tier 1 or 2 lender).When you move into commercial properties, there are a variety of fees, an origination fee is a possibility, but still not common.If you are using an independent broker who's not being compensated by the lender (which they should disclose), they will charge you a fee for their services (in my experience these fees are negotiable).In our experience, even when paying the lender levied fees associated with commercial financing (lenders admin, legal, etc), the fees are deducted from the funds advanced.  

Not the norm but not unheard of either...just a different version of the daisy chain. 

My question is whether or not it's unheard of to cover all or most of the down payment via credit card, or if that's even possible/legal?

These companies locate where Real Estate is cheap & politicians will give them unheard of incentives thinking it will clean areas up.

A few decades ago GRM's of 4-8 were considered standard for multis, now in the age of weaponized finance it's unheard of.

This was unheard of 10 years ago - and I may catch a lot of heat for saying this here: among many other downtown projects, things like the new Hop streetcar contribute to the cool urban feel that attracts Millennials. 

(inspector said this is almost unheard of - so sounds like a responsible owner!)