Are you not necessarily denying him based on screening criteria - Some landlords make it a requirement to view the property prior to letting the applicant apply.

Personally I'm working on a very exciting niche, but will take some time to pull together; and I'll give you more details as it moves ahead. 

you can take more ownership that way. 

The numbers look ok, the neighborhood is good. But there arent a lot of photos. I'm not sure.

Be sure your lender is comfortable with this, as many fear giving folks primary loans for properties they view as having a high probability of being turned into a purely investment.

Your reading of that section isn't exactly what I would take away.

If you’ve yet to build up substantial credit in the U.S. you can apply for foreign national specific loans that don’t take credit history into consideration when qualifying as in some circumstances you can get better rates and terms applying as a FN when your U.S. based credit history is in it’s infancy.

Just $800 today for the dozer totally stepped up the view of this property.  

I’ve learned through experience that if a renovation will take several weeks or months to complete, it’s usually better to hire contractors.

View it as a business expense like you do the mortgage.