Most investors want something easy.

As a general rule of thumb if the property has a ground level commercial requirement in order to show sufficient hardship to seek a residential use change the property should be located in a location that is not conducive to commercial use i.e residential street, close but not as marketable as properties located on neighborhood's primary commercial corridor etc. 

He does good work and is easy to work with.

You want it to be easy for your tenants to use to avoid non-payment or technological issues on their end, too.

Do one task at a time in each app so you can compare apples to apples.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.

As for a downward shift you can always lower your rate (underwrite a worst, middle and best case scenario), Make sure your rental stands out from the crowd (easy to do in Hawaii since most owners don't reinvest in their property).  

I was on a Senate Steering committee way back in 85 on how to deal with all the platted antiquated lots in CA. there are millions lots created before the modern rules and these lots exist today but many are not buildable and are traded back and forth from tax sale buyers to retail buyers who dont realize their 5k lot in CA is non buildable.So there was a big conference in FT.

But when you can qualify and deal with the process before then - usually worth it to do bank options like this until you hit the scaling point (could be 3 rentals could be 5, could be 10 etc - no real "hard and fast rule") 

If you have never done this as a full time business I will throw caution to the wind it is not as easy or as profitable as online forums make it out to be, and if you need money for living this probably is not going to sustain your lifestyle for the first several years. 

Michael Trofimoff is her business partner according to the case information, evidence and rulings by the judge.