"I have a very simple criteria for when an area is gentrifying as opposed to just generally improving: If it makes economic sense to buy (at market price) and tear down an existing structure in order to build and immediately sell a new building, then the area is gentrifying.

I would generally say no if you don't have a property unless you're looking for peace of mind knowing that you've set your financial life properly. 

However I think in general you would get lower rates going to credit unions than bigger banks though maybe you might get more if they think they can make the money up elsewhere.

Mobile homes are generally much harder to finance.

There are some people that get lucky and earn cash quickly, but they generally hide the fact that it was pure luck or how much work was involved.

MAREI's still here, we meet at the Double Tree on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 6 to 9 and we have a meeting after the meeting.1st Meeting is FREE.We have generally 100 in attendance.Come out and check it out, join our community -Next meeting is February 11th.

Generally I'm a fan of hold until you die but in this case you are earning low cash flow on a large amount of equity.

It is cheaper, in general, to sub out like you say but if you have no experience sequencing the work and talking to subs you may be scarring them off.

Unfortunately, such a funding option is not generally available for commercial properties, unless your LLC or Corp that is the borrower has other "unencumbered" assets that can be leveraged to generate the funds you need. 

But I generally don't find that clients need to spend that much money on the process when some simple coaching can make them comfortable in their search.