Have the tenant pay for repairs and maintenance with future rent increases by using a line of credit.

Cash flowing well on every SFH and small multi family deal I've done in Upstate NY, even with my first having an interest rate above 10% due to what my credit was.

If you don't have a credit card, I would recommend Discover's credit card for college students. 

The best way to find a handyman is to look for business cards at coffee shops and local restaurants.

As lenders, well issue a prequal/preapproval letter if we've analyzed your income, assets (bank and brokerage statements to establish that you have the liquidity to afford the down payment, closing costs, and reserves), review credit of the guarantors, review the relevant experience to ensure that we're not throwing our money away on newbies that are wandering around in the dark, and have put together a reasonable plan of attack for the project.

From there, it's normal DTI/Credit/Cash assessment for the new loan to determine whether you can afford the loan. 

Could you send them a credit/debit card you can reload from America?

If they do not qualify because of poor credit or income issues compared to being self employed etc there are differences - but typically people don’t qualify due to poor credit and people will seller finance to these borrowers thinking they woke up at a holiday inn and got a finance degree when in reality they repeat their past mistakesRemember the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result

Mortgage lending is highly competitive, and there are many newbie loan officers that will bend over backwards to get you to pull a credit report and pay for an appraisal.

For a traditional Heloc at most small banks/CU's, the rate will be variable and will be WSJ Prime + a spread that represents the borrower's credit risk.