I put in an offer for a contractor friend, and lo and behold, there were 5 offers submitted by Monday and the bank was asking for highest and best.

@Vernalene Perez What you need to do is have a business license or your cpa state that you have been self employed for 2 yrs.Once you get over that hurdle you need an experienced loan officer or broker to evaluate your 1040s and all schedules.Based on that info and some other documents your LO or broker should be able to let you know what your buying power is.C.I.A

@Glenn Mayo You are still on the hook in a LO.

Check with my preferred lender - https://movement.com/lo/hung-le/.

Before taking on a project where you are counting on refinancing as an "exit strategy"; have an LO or the bank that can do a refinance on the property come out and confirm that you will be able to get what you are looking for.

I’m looking into applying for a low documentation loan for a rental property in Mississippi or cash out refi. Does anyone have any experience with a company or can someone recommend a company they have worked with bef...

Easier to work with, expect to close faster, and with less stress.The LO on offer #2 is electing to roll closing costs into your loan balance, the LO on offer #1 is electing to ask you to pay them out of pocket.

Last one quoted me $5,000 per month for one LO (me), for their "starter" program.

Lo and behold we got under contract at 213k with 5.5k concessions meaning....my 207k amateur estimate was pretty much dead on. 

Going to 30% down is another 0.5 discount point reduction, which would put you out of "discount point land" entirely, and into "lender credit for your closing costs" land (what we typically call "negative discount points).So now it's basically ARM at 7% (0 points) v FRM at 7.625% (0 points), and my answer there is that 0.625% off the rate isn't enough that I'd take an ARM.Shame on that LO for not telling you that.