Depending on how much equity in the property would be key as you cannot borrow 100%, if its investment property 80% is max typically. 

(Some have argued that the actions of the Obama administration were illegal taking.)The main problem with having it controlled by the government is that it has been, and will continue to be used for political purposes, right or left, depending on the administration.I'd rather see it outside government control.

I'm in the no pet camp, but some of it depends on the property.

This will depend on your risk tolerance and your goals but you should consider starting with a single-family home to gain experience as a landlord and build your network.

If positive, it's generally treated like income or offsets the liability for that property to $0; this is highly dependent on the circumstances.

And keep in mind that the rate on the 2nd lien will likely be 10-12% so depending on the cash flow it might not actually yield that much cash to you at closingMore importantly, it's just more debt so ultimately it sounds like you need an income-producing event to actually improve your situation and avoid some of the consequences that you mentioned

So, it will still be dependent on you to make MANY decisions that bring the project to a successful conclusion.

I understand that everyone has unique goals, and responses will vary depending on those objectives.

You can get more than one VA loan depending on your allotment and you don't need to owner-occupy the second one so I would look into that first.

You could run into issues down the line without one, depending on your business structure.