I literally laughed through the phone at his suggestion, because I was broke, in debt, and in every way and unqualified borrower, and the lending environment in 2012 was probably stricter than it had been since the invention of the 30yr mortgage.

Or paying off my debt, while I provide them with a nice house to live in instead of an apartment. 

My occupancy rate is probably as good as anyone, and one thing I do is never have a high debt load then turn that around and award my tenants with rental rates they can't match elsewhere. 

Some people only want 10-20% of their outstanding lines/debt balances available while the other 80-90% to be in fixed rate notes.

Her mother is willing to (co-sign) and has excellent credit and debt to income ratio that will more than allow but I’m not sure the best way to structure this for the house to still be in our name?  

It's the concept of buying the debt attached to the mortgage rather than buying the house. 

Analyze properties by looking at gross rental income, operating expenses, and the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR above 1.25 for rentals).

I can buy a 2-4 unit with 20% down vs conventional can only buy a 2-4 INVESTMENT property with 25% down 4. there are options where DSCR loans dont repot to personal credit, helps in not having to show a bunch of paperwork or not one person in a partnership has to carry the debt5. way less paperwork to close on this loan type vs a conventional loan. we care about the income of the property you're buying and it's ability to service the debt of the property whether we use long term rents income, lease income, or air dna/bnb income.6. easily buy in partnerships, add people to your operating agreement, its as easy as that so bring partners into a deal. helps with scaling and raising capital or getting partners involved7. gift funds allowed to close on these as well, and like I said earlier, there's only a 10day seasoning period of funds with some lenders so that means you can literally have a private money lender deposit money into your account 11 days before closing, and you can use those funds to close!

Buy the same amount(in regards to downpayment allocations) in debt notes.

They had exhibited the desire to pay down debt and had cashed out the parks before us that had agreed to owner finance.