A lot of loans require that you already own the land outright before they will provide funding but there are tons of different options.Once you have the funding piece figured out, I would discuss with a builder and try to price it out.

My concern is that I might be over leveraging myself if I try pull out a 20% down payment for a DSCR loan.

We were able to rent it out for $4,750/month the first year but the tenants moved out at end of lease in October, and we've been trying to fill the property since.

Trying to take some of our Selfstorage money and enjoying it.  

After debating local vs. or OOS, it seems like prudent advice to try to start locally with long term MF in so cal. 

I try my best to stay motivated and focused even though had a few rough experiences on other projects before with them.

This was a no money down deal was a tri-plex, duplex, SFR and studio all on a few city lots.

If a unit is $1500 without water and another unit is $1650 because it includes water that Averages $150/month with tenants that are not conserving because the LL pays the water, the $1500 unit will get many more people to look at it when trying to fill the vacancy. 

Funny because I’m a physician trying to get to retirement with STRs-not sure if it’s going to pan out but being in a city with lots of tourists is helpful.

Consider a bigger cabin if you want to try to grab a huge equity capture over the next 2 or 3 three years.  2,000 sq ft cabins that were generating 120k a year gross and selling for 850k to 875k are now hitting 85k to 100k and going for 675k to 725k.