When you leave an open question on where is a good market to invest you will get a number of reat answers. 

HELOC rates are high right now as well, which most lenders would not give the full amount anyway (maybe $15,000-$20,000 max in a credit line) which would leave your only option to be FHA anyway and still be tight as your DTI would increase more based on that.

They screwed up and wouldn't leave.

Another month goes buy and I send and email and leave voice messages and nothing.  

They equate the period leading up to the time its ready to rent as the risky part of the real estate process and pay a premium to bypass that part but this leaves them with unreasonable expectations because the real estate they purchase is inherently risky.

It's just unfortunate you were not notified to get the plumbers out sooner or the PM did not communicate not to leave the faucets off but ultimately if they were left off you likely would have had pressure built up and pipes burst (especially if they lines weren't all PEX) so the root issue of not having heating water lines still was the issue.

My thoughts: if you have a steady job that can support the negative cash flow, and you don't plan on leaving Long Island for at least 5-7 years, I would house hack. 

That leaves me with $350/mo. $350/mo.

Like mentioned at the beginning, with out knowing your specific market, I'm leaning towards saying leave the occupancy at 7 and keep the neighborhood happy.

This will probably necessitate leaving $20,000 to $30,000 into the property.7.