Quote from @Melanie Baldridge: It's really simple: increase earnings, reduce expenses, save, invest, and wait. 

The goal is to have positive cash flow, where rental income exceeds your expenses.

That’s insanely expensive, and I put in for this weekend.

The underwriter is likely going to ask you about housing expenses in Colorado for the 5 months (December - April) when you're in Colorado.  

Sorry to be a wonk, but the reason is that many expenses are semi-variable.

If my largest expense after Milton was a $600 water bill, I would pay it and be grateful to be so lucky.

Many loan officers who work primarily in the owner occupied space will try to argue that DSCR is more expensive and have higher rates, but that is simply not true in most cases. 

.- I get an experienced sponsor/developer that can run the show so I don't run the risk of making any (very expensive) mistakes from my lack of experience.- I can get exposure to large multi-family with many tenants.

WA is too expensive and property owner rights for rentals isn’t as good.  

If the PITI plus expenses are being covered by the renter and you can get most/all of your cash back, hold it.