Banks often have very rigid requirements, such as high credit scores and a detailed financial history as well as lots of paperwork.Private Money Lenders: Faster and more flexible.

We have some credit card debt we are hyper focused on paying down , and 34K in my student loans (not touching currently due to SAVE plan with the zero percent interest).

One of the things you can start doing is reviewing your credit score and work on improving it if needed.

We bought it for $225k with a 3.125% mortgage and 1) are interested in keeping it as our first rental. 2) We are thinking about using some of the equity (maybe $50k or less as a HELOC to combine with existing cash for our next home down payment that we can convert to a HELOAN through our credit union).

In light of this, would lenders see me as a higher risk if I have a history of paying off mortgages early? 

I called Home Depot, they told me to dispute the credit card charges so I did.  

Also remember just because a loan may qualify as being assumable the lender will go through a thorough underwriting process to confirm you meet eligibility for the loan.I have seen a guru teaching people with poor credit to go after these types of loans and it’s unfortunate as many would most likely not qualify.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history very important!

I have taken all my taxes and insurance out of escrow, and I run them through credit cards to rack up points, so I pay a lot of bills every year.3.

Most of my clients run their SFRs at a 25%-30% (excluding vacancy/credit loss) operating expense margin and most of the banks I deal with on their DSCR loans underwrite using 35%.