I'm an investor and a licensed mortgage broker who has done fix and flips both using my home's equity and borrowing against the investment property.If you (1) have enough equity in your home to fully fund the deals, (2) don't mind tying that equity up for these deals vs saving it for a rainy day and (3) are ok linking the place you sleep with the success of the flips, this could make sense.We offer a ton of different fix and flip programs including putting 10% down on the purchase price and funding 100% of the rehab.

We want to explore investing in different type of property or doing airbnb.

You can cover the wire mesh with drywall patches (they tape on wall and across the wire, white/paintable, different sizes) as the wire mesh is what will prevent the rats from eating their way into the property (the covering material is cosmetic only).

Would this still be recommended if I planned on investing in different markets? 

This was a DIFFERENT bank from the one my mortgage is in, I'm hopeful that works, but I'm not sure. 

Kind of a pain and also both less transparent and less efficient than before, but not drastically different. 

Given your stated position of things, assumptions of skills and network, I'd say your best path is a totally different one. 

In fact, they are all vastly different.

We want to buy an arcade machine for our STR that plays a bunch of different games.

So far, I've rated Evergreen and FCI lowest based on a number of reviews on different platforms that have consistent negative reviews mentioning certain specific issues that I find concerning (this is after accounting for the inevitable disgruntled customer/borrower who gets unjustifiably upset).Are you able to share any of your information?