I can't speak for all markets but in Indianapolis and Kansas City, prices are still going up in spite of COVID 19.

Will that increase my chances of being able to refi in spite of my DTI ratio?

Indianapolis median home prices rose 8.5% in May YOY. Although the number of closed sales dropped 23.3% prices continued to rise. This is due to the continuing shortage of inventory which is being seen in many markets...

Well, that recession is here.It isn’t the end of the world, in spite of prognostications to the opposite.  

In spite of healthy liquid assets, high credit score, and decent gross income (close to three figure) as a small business owner, I am having a lot of trouble qualifying for a higher conventional loan.

Once you have long term financing in place are there any downsides in spitting the unit into 2 for cash flow?

And using your capital to pay down debt and improve another investment at what you feel is a strategic time is a good thing (in spite of what you'll hear from all the leverage jockeys around). 

In my local market, it's really hard to hit the 1% rule, unless you're looking at a pretty run down mobile home, or a sketchy neighborhood, but I've still been analyzing away just to give myself a feel for how the numbers work.I've set a goal of buying my first single family rental property this year and doing all I can to see that goal accomplished in spite of the craziness going on right now with the COVID-19.  

Has not made much effort to find a place to live in spite of my brother and I telling her that we want to put the house up for sale at the first available opportunity, which would hopefully be this July when we are named administrators to the estate. 

I am a high school teacher and both children who were born in the United States have earned strait A's in spite of the challenges that extreme poverty and fear that their parents could be deported present.