If tenant knows you do not have insurance, which they could learn by searching for you on the internet and finding this thread, they have the upper hand.  

So my other options were to use my good credit but of course all of the loans want to use my personal credit and impact my debt-to-income.

Start working on your credit score and research financing options, including FHA or conventional loans.

I think that the tax perks from having a rental make this more attractive than it might initially seem, but I have only done some quick internet searches, so I could very well be overestimating the upside and underestimating the downside??

If your credit is decent then I would utilize your cash as leverage to leverage:1.

Keep in mind its end of year pretty much every seller and builder is offering a 2% seller credit its the norm.$50K in earnest is a lot and if the lender drops the ball are you positive they can get the credit denial out in time to refund the earnest?  

If I were to apply for a CFO role now, more than likely I have to advantage over a CFO that was in a manufacturing company for a real estate company.EAs specializes specifically in taxationCPAs have a broader knowledge for accounting, auditing, financial planning, and taxation.EA must pass a 3-part IRS exam and do not require a college degreeCPA need a degree in accounting, 150 credit hours of education, must a 4-part CPA exam.EAs often charge a lower fees

I stand corrected:)They do have an office in Metro Detroit and while we're far from perfect, we seem to get a lot of their unhappy previous clients.In our opinion, they built a system for Class A rentals - where tenants have 680+ credit scores and rarely have to be evicted or trash properties.They then tried to apply their processes to Class B & C rentals and that's when their service issues increased.All this caused them to recently significantly increase their Flat Fee pricing and monthly minimum charges.

But I agree with an above poster that $10 psf in tenant improvement seems low, unless you can find a turn-key tenant to occupy that will require very little renovation.In DFW, for 2nd generation spaces, I've seen LLs underwrite at about $25-35 psf in expected TI allowance (subject to the lease terms and tenant credit rating).  

For now, we’re working hard to build our credit, which is already in a decent place since we don’t have significant debts.