And, analyzing ROI, CoC, and rent vacancy rates, etc are all manual. 

You can often get better rates with a national lender, but the customer service is non-existent, communication probably sucks, they may ask for the same documents multiple times, etc.

Or put in your interest rate here, and your loan balance there.The art is where I think most people struggle, and I don't think this can really be done without real world knowledge.  

If your property management company is good and has built an internal maintenance team which has set rates and had strong relationship relationships with licensed contractor which should keep costs in control, you should never need to shop contractors on your own I wouldn't think.So in short, our policy is give us your preferred contractors upfront if you have them, but then we work all tickets to resolution including dispatch, and payment of invoices.This is of course for operational expenses.  

As long as you are on the loan, on title, and live in the home for 12 months minimum, then your non occupying coborrower can qualify for 5% down at owner occupied rates.

I pay my CPA for QB's and get a small discount.

Quote from @Elinore Aguilar: The best way is to have the best firm with a reasonable rate and trust reviews.

Firestone park and Goodyear Heights are nice areas that get good rental rates and have lots of demand. 

we are experiencing something similar with a property in western nc. its a large investment home, in a good area. we offered it at 100 per sqft . we have not had the attention it should have . i assumed it was due to storms , elections, interest rates. i could be wrong we may pull it from the market and finish it.

Id keep looking if it was not an approved short sale ( even an approved short sale takes a very very long time and theres no guarantee that you will even close on the house after months of waiting). q1)There are plenty of non traditional lenders that could offer you construction financing if the numbers make sense but it will cost you with points and a higher rate.