So far it has helped me and I have done this on two deals in different states with different banks.

I have not seen a significant difference in this area between section 8 and non-section 8 tenants, personally. 

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).

In fact, they are all vastly different.

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. 

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

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