Then you work backwards to figure out how many properties that equals for your buy box.

offer a fair market price that you are happy with and then in the contract say you will pay X amount additionally over 5-10 years to equal the amount they actually want? 

A 3% annual growth equals approx a 300bps increase in the cap rate over the horizon, not a coincidence.

My guess is they aren't the exception to the rule, so since then I've been very diligent in my midterm rentals about asking for a large deposit (midterm rental deposits should be equal to one month's rent or more).

That being said - SA is huge and not all areas are equally strong in regards to rental prices and appreciation gains.

Basically if the interest, taxes and insurance (ITI) is equal to rents it qualifies instead of having to qualify rents against a full PITI (principal, Interest, taxes & Insurance).There are also some DSCR options that can use the STR like VRBO which tend to be much higher then the LTR - long term rents.

Even though this would also be an equally small loan, banks can't turn those down if your credit is otherwise good because that is considered red-lining which is illegal for owner-occupied loans.

You know, the love you take is equal to the love you make. 

Remember that in order to qualify for a 1031 exchange, both properties must be investment properties and the replacement property must be of equal or greater value than the one sold.When to consider a 1031 exchange?

I can't imagine this is legal in any state (as written), I would assume they are saying that their admin fee is equal to 35% of the security deposit, which is quite excessive in high-rent cities.