And it can be very easy to get dissuaded by a stranger (or Realtor) telling you you should have done this 4 years ago, or you're unbankable, or you can't do it, or whatever. 

if you can buy a property using a conventional loan or a commercial loan you should . . . all things being equal.However, if you are unbankable, or if the asset based loans are offering something that is "safer" than the other two loan categories, then they can have some advantages that offset the fees. 

With lobbying by the National Association of Realtors, the FHA and VA began offering to guarantee loans to otherwise unbankable borrowers.  

In this court of law you are guilty until proven innocent; your loan application is unbankable until proven feasible.All in all - the project profile should still serve you well.

While that next, hopefully, high appreciating asset makes you unbankable for two years, I’m buying more properties.

Unless they are unbankable or unable to qualify for a bank. 

PayNearMe for unbanked tenants works well.

For anyone renting property that meets the 2% rule (or 1.5% rule, and 1% rule in some areas) you will find qualified applicants and tenants who are the "unbanked" or "underbanked".

My observations are: there is no correlation between un-banked applicants with no credit history and tenant performance, no/low credit history means they are not in default, any age group can have low/no credit history, if you rely on credit scores only then you eliminate some good tenant candidates. 

An unbanked tenant can just get a low cost money order or check and drop it in the mail.