As Trent mentioned above, the only way I'm taking a chance with a new co host without experience is if they are grinding their way through cold calls and earn my respect. 

My real estate agent, who has a long prior career history in construction, seems to be happy with both the properties and has inspected them in detail and also been under the crawl space noting new plumbing, electrical and foundation sister-in-law beams too.As mentioned it is looking very likely the current buyer will not meet the closing deadline at which point I am next in line and have got price agreed with the back up after a few phone calls today. 

You deserve every penny of profit you earned!

I'm so much happier now, earning more income and tax benefits, don't need to be involved in the properties, and have reduced my liability with an added layer that puts more distance between me and the tenants.

Having been in many aspects of real estate throughout my career my favorites are ground up construction and note investing. right now note investing takes the cake as it can be done in any environment whereas ground up right now is very challenging. 

You can earn honorable discounts and fees overtime by establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with one lender or broker but squeezing them dry for a lot of hard work and not equal pay isn't something I recommend making a strategy

You'll be better served by just setting cash aside earning 5% and looking to refinance later on.

Many investors use a general rule of thumb for midterm rentals that they should earn about 50% more in rents than an equivalent long-term rental (whereas short-term rentals should earn double or 100% more than if the property was utilized as a long-term rental).However, for DSCR lenders, change can be slow and challenging, and many lenders prefer and require more precise qualification measures than rules of thumb.

And what do they actually do to earn that stake?

I’ll bear the frustration for the former, knowing it is venting/frustration earned from years past, and I’ll consider feedback on the latter as actionable to inform present-day decision-making.