Also, don't deprioritize building a financial cushion by allocating a portion of your income to an investment fund for down payments and property improvements.

If they got a nice cushion of savings say like 10-20k, I would probably accept them as tenants assuming all the other ducks are in a row and if they are willing to put first, last and security down (if legal in your county/state).

Some may require you to have a certain amount of experience or in place of that have a certain amount of cash cushion available called reserves.

Typically you are lending at low LTV which gives you some cushion in case things like this occur.  

If you had the funds available, with some cushion, is it advisable to skip the HML and $7-12k cost, and purchase in cash?

Once you're behind on that, you need to build a bigger cushion than what you got real estate investing.

If you have $50k to invest then you will probably be looking at properties in the mid-to-high $100s (assuming you're putting 20% down + closing costs and a little cushion).

Although you can get those wrapped into the loan by making an offer with seller closing credit. 6 months of reserves is a very comfortable cushion to have.

D) Save a bit longer and have more of a cash cushion for renovationsThese are just some ideas, but I’m sure there are many ways for you to still make it happen.Happy to chat again soon Ben-Ant

So, acquiring the property for a $2,100 cost with potential earnings of $2,900 is acceptable in your evaluation, provided there is sufficient financial backing to cushion any potential setbacks.Thank you, Frank!