It's like putting your life into net negative before you are trending enough into financial positive.

Curious as to whether anyone uses them and has anything negative to say.

Prices haven't fallen, and rents haven't moved up enough.Investors either need to work harder, be more creative, accept negative cash flow, or sit on the sidelines. 

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

I only screen those 18+ so usually it’s only 2-3 people.

I only make 54k year at the moment with my full time job so it’s a challenge .

This implies renting is initially cheaper than buying and at high LTV, rentals are initially cash flow negative.  

My underwriting would have this large negative cash flow for 7 years.I would do a thorough underwriting but want to show using quick math the issue so I will use the 50% rule.  

As long as you are not a borrower, there is no note or loan that will negatively affect your dti from a debt perspective.

@James Hamling is mistaken as usual; but that's normally the case with him.Lol, yeah what do I know I only manage 1,500 odd SFR's.