[1] How are retirees living on rental income supposed to pay their mortgages?

As mentioned elsewhere, breakeven on cash flow is not the same as break even for taxes.Let's make some assumptions:Rental income = $1000Mortgage payment = $400 - but $300 is interest and $100 is principalOther expenses (repairs, advertising, utilities, etc) = $600Depreciation = $250The above scenario creates a break even from a cash flow perspective, however the tax scenario looks like this:Rental income minus the mortgage interest (principal is not deductible) minus the other expenses minus depreciation looks like this:1000-300-600-250 = $150 LossIf your income is over $150,000, then you cannot deduct that loss, but you can roll it over to future years. 

Also mortgage rates are dropping.

mortgage How did you add value to the deal?

Not sure what the returns are on a 6 bedroom for rents are but those would be your numbers.As far as new construction versus existing, I'm not seeing the gaps that big in any size range. 

We have a balance of 266K on the mortgage @ 3 percent interest.

I had a cost seg done on one of my homes and trying to get one done on another from this company that rob with bigger pockets had done a set on.Every time I email them it says there email doesn't exist and cannot get a response.

We take pictures on a pre-inspection only of existing damage, which generally doesn't exist because we repair anything that happens between tenants.

The DSCR ratio is calculated by taking the rental amount (either from a lease or the 1007 page of an appraisal) divided by the new monthly PITI mortgage.

The lender will need to be able to prove on paper that you can afford all those mortgages with your job income and the rental income that you have.