They had to be responsive, helpful/friendly, and be knowledgeable in the capacity I plan to hire them. 

So first, you'll want to make sure you have your "3 C's" lined up: 1)  your Credit score, 2) your debt-to-income ratios (Capacity), and 3) your Collateral... you should be good for the third one as you have enough for your next down payment. 

Specialty self-directed providers have the processing capacity to get beyond publicly traded assets.

This is why it is important to ask about (a) track record (b) analytical capacity (c) questions related to specific underwriting rules (d) etc. before you go under app - to determine whether or not you're working with a sleazy salesman, or a mortgage banker. 

Its been renting at full capacity and just started the refinance process.

There were also, for some, a little bit of advantage in terms of getting higher bonding capacity for state jobs, etc. 

Finding an investor, wholesaler, or similar to work for in some capacity would definitely get you more skills and exposure to different business models. 

In the markets I'm looking at, it doesn't need to be anywhere near at full capacity all month, but I'm hearing of a few investors kind of hanging on at the moment.How are you coping with this until the vacation market picks back up?

If you plan on going with that property, you'll need to have an engineer inspect the cables for proper tensioning, tensile strength of THAT thickness of cable, capacity, threshold under stress, and all that good geeky stuff. 🧐 It will cost you a bit, engineers typically don't work for cheap.

As Linda mentioned, high-level nuggets are a good way to demonstrate an understanding of an investor's tax situation and possible solutions but granular tax advice should not be given in an intro meeting - not only because it's a paid-for service but also because tax advice is extremely individualized; we need to know the investor's unique situation before we can accurately and confidently advise, so a review of documentation would be a prerequisite (in most cases).Lastly, as some have said above, we also turn away clients - whether it be for capacity reasons or because it isn't a good fit.