They add up all your payments, the min on CC's, all mortgages and other debt.  

Note: he did foreclose on his house and also stopped paying his cc payments.

Those should be your primary target areas, unless you are OK with going into C/C- neighborhoods, at which point I'm going to recommend East Mesquite, Pleasant Grove, Hutchins, and areas in South East Dallas.

Annual numbers:Cash down: just under $52,000 (down payment, CC, materials + labor)Gross rent: $20,535 (5% vacancy which is very high but had to include due to the delay in carpet install.Expenses: $14,817 (Mortgage, taxes, insurance, maint. fees)$476.50/month before reservesMy experience with rentals where I pay a maintenance fee so far (no roof, no hvac): <<$50/year additional expenses, but I will set aside $1200/year for fun.$376.50/month after reservesI couldn't have done it with the generous guidance both on BP as well as the awesome veteran investors especially @Michael Mazzella @Bob Bowling :)Yes I do have a mortgage for this one.

As @Justin Thompson already stated you can go with one of those companies that offer unsecured CC with 0% interest for 12mos', the downside is that they charge a fee, similar to points, like a hard $ lender.Also, Home Depot and Lowes offer project loans.

There is a group that meets in Fort Worth at Woodhaven CC every Saturday 9 a.m.

I suggest getting a Square account (free) to take CC numbers over the phone (if the tenant is willing to), and a PayPal account (free) for those that don't want to give their CC number.

Are we taxed somehow on the conversion of CC points converted to gift cards?

@Brian C I appreciate the advice it does sound like I could make this deal work in my favor.

They offer a CC payment option - I'm not sure if that would allow your tenants without bank accounts to pay online via a prepaid debit card, or BlueBird type card - it's probably a good question for them.