Several factors indicate the company is not that concerned about efficiency or ease of customer process: the website, a process that seemed to focus on one issue at a time instead of all issues at once, and consistently poor communications and lack of common sense from the loan analyst we were assigned.It started off very well with the initial point of contact, Austin Lornson, who did a fine job of explaining the general refinancing process, responding quickly and thoroughly to our questions.

I have done BRRRRs in Milwaukee for a decade+ and if I am not on the job 2-3 times a week, things go sub-optimal.

If you are able to setup a credit card identical to your accounts payable accrual account, it should operate the same.  

I currently operate a few STRs so have a good understanding of that aspect although they're all located in touristy locations.

Where another issue arrises is I recently quit my job after becoming pregnant as they would not cover my maternity while overseas, my husband is employed however he works for a UK company and is British so would be unlikely to help us with the situation in the US.

The consistent population and job growth are driving real estate values along with many companies choosing to move and develop here like Intel, Amazon, Google, Meta, etc.

Quote from @Matt McNabb: I'm a solid $400k/yr job in NYC and have $250k to begin investing as my first step into building a portfolio, although I don't have time to be a landlord so I have to account for management fees.  

I'm fairly handy, but just to balance things with my 9-5 job, focusing on something that just needs superficial updates or something nearly turn-key is probably best. 

Or you might have to suck it up at that job and do real estate part time till it takes off

If you made those free they'd be complaining about jobs or supermarket deserts or lack of public transportation or some other issue.