A popular and profitable alternative is medium term rentals or 30+day stays.

If your cleaner is strong-arming you you can find an alternative on Turno.

It sounds like you will be looking for hard money loans, which are a better alternative to conventional loans when you are looking to flip a deal.

If you can't get sewer, then your alternative is onsite septic, if soil is suitable, then your buildable area shrinks dramatically due to drain field and reserve areas for each home.

If you're not a W-2 employee or have additional income you can try an alternative income verification such as bank statement deposit averages or asset depletion (if you have significant reserves or assets.) 

Someone who is intimidated by it might not want 2, but probably doesn't want 1 either.The risk in the two portfolios is inverse to each other since we don't know anything more about either alternative.

As an alternative, it's much easier to install  vinyl tile.

Alternatively recognize the challenges of being cash neutral at high LTV, the benefits of no longer paying a LL rent, that rates may lower such that you can refi, that over long term there will be appreciation and rent growth so it will at some point have positive cash flow, etc and lower your initial goal of cash neutral. 

I suppose I'm looking for any advice on how you found an alternative to hard money. 

We could sell the old house and net at least $175-200k (after costs of selling -- this is a hot market) and would put that toward the new mortgage (reducing our monthly payment and interest costs).Alternatively, we can rent it at an amount that covers mortgage, taxes, and insurance, but not much more than that.