I have a Bookkeeper for my farm expenses/income but I am not sure if she has any RE experience and has not gotten back to me if she will do it or not as she has suffered a health crisis this year and has cut back some. 

here is the situation. i left a really good paying job to take care of my 81 year old parents because my dad is chronically ill and my mom is almost there. i wont go into too much detail, but my sis doesnt help them. ill leave it at that. we have a person who comes twice a week to help with cleaning and other household tasks. i carry the bulk of the weight cooking their meals, running errands, grocery shopping, picking up meds, and taking them to dr appointments. its a full time job. i get a small salary of $1000 a month from a care giver sub contractor for the VA. ive been paying my bills with what savings ive had, but only have a few months of funds left. i own a duplex. i have over 200k in equity. i live in texas and texas has weird laws about refi and heloc/heloans when the property is 4 units or less and owner occupied. i would rather not sell, but if thats my only option i will have to at some point.does anyone have any advice or possibly be able to point me to lenders who might be able to work with my situation?

I just tell them, they can apply but it is probably not worth their time and money because I wont be able to hold the property vacant for that long.

I feel that if I build new I wont have a issue for 10 yrs and I wont need to compete with other investors.  1.

I wont say I go above and beyond on fixing up the places and making them jaw dropping beautiful, I still do them up enough to where I would be comfortable living there.

There are much simpler solutions that wont cost you 18K. 

Some dogs suffer from separation anxiety and do this. 

Since you aren't looking until next year, you wont' be able to get a rate quote now, most likely not until you are under contract and they can lock that in. 

Are there any challenges or reasons why some of these tenants wont be able to pay through the software that I am not aware of?

All this as well as keeping an eye out for off market properties and sending them over to the client even though we really wont get paid until they decide to sell it if you are still their realtor by then lol.