I'm fascinated with the idea of tiny homes/smaller homes (300-700ish sqft) for short term and possible long term rentals.

That went really well but didn't last long as this is a small town with a tiny college.

I am an experienced loan officer and I have multiple investment properties myself.

The flipper folks always like to say "you make your money when you buy," meaning that the lowest possible and highest value entry price point is one of the most important things.So let's visualize a single story office building.

My full time job requires me to go to the office in Dallas, TX.

Talking to zoning officers, I find that in some municipalities they are grandfathered in, but in others this exemption ends when the lot changes hands.What I am seeing is a picture of a huge amount of semi-rural land that is frozen in time—impossible to use and therefore impossible to sell.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean by "Commercial" - are you looking for a business-purpose loan on a residential investment property or are you looking at true commercial real estate (office, retail, etc)?

Find a local office in WA and discuss your situation with them.

Sharing the tiny kitchen wasn’t such a big deal because we cooked together and got along.

Their main office is in Columbus, but they are licensed in several states.