Yet if the numbers were to far exceed the proforma, you can bet they wouldn't be willing to give you any of that money back. :-)I wonder if you could take another actual cabin and do a 5 year example of ownership on the actuals for that cabin and then put that those numbers can't be used as a guarantee for any other cabin's future returns. 

Commercial is your best bet (rates are actually closer to 7-8%) or you can have a loan against your other assets such as brokerage, retire accounts, or a group LOC for your other properties.

Might not be 100% safe but it seems like a pretty sure bet

I've been educating myself on real estate for the past 3ish weeks or so but I have about 10k worth of credit card debt should I try and pay it all off so I can get my credit score up and have better approval odds for my first investment loan (I would be using my VA loan).

Best bet is to contact your trusted lender or other financial institutions to compare offers to find the best interest rates and terms that suit your investment strategy.  

Research analysts at Jeffries recently estimated that a $2.7 trillion refinance boom could start soon.Current odds on Fed rate cuts at upcoming FOMC meetings below.

The seller has agreed to let us out of the contract but does not agree that we should receive our earnest money back because he says he is able to bet everything damaged and stolen repaired and replaced before closing.   

I have a half dozen years of experience renting out a few single family homes and am looking to bet big in a different market.

If you find a great broker, ask them for lenders/attorneys/title/etc. and odds are they will open their network to you. 2.

I placed a few bets in those over the past few years, so we'll see.