I figure the upside to the rental scenario is, of course, investing in multiple properties, while a downside would be having to most likely get a conventional loan on the second house with 20+% down and proof of sufficient enough financial reserves to handle two mortgages. 

We back into the "strike price", meaning the maximum price we're willing to pay for a property, by starting with a conservative ARV and then backing off our required profit, the rehab cost, the time value of money (carrying costs and interest), and a contingency reserve for unexpected expenses.

There is a potential scenario where an outside rescue fund (marketed as preferred equity to new investors) could come into play in many of the projects that appear to be performing especially if they have been paying the pref (via a reserve account stockpiled by over raising funds in the beginning).

I've included an example below to help illustrate this.So different lenders have different rates (which do vary even for DSCR loans) but these are factors they all consider.See example below:DSCR < 1Principal + Interest = $1,700Taxes = $350, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $50Total PITIA = $2200Rent = $2000DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2000/2200 = 0.91Since the DSCR is 0.91, we know the expenses are greater than the income of the property.DSCR >1Principal + Interest = $1,500Taxes = $250, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $25Total PITIA = $1875 Rent = $2300DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2300/1875 = 1.23If a purchase, you also generally need reserves / savings to show you have 3-6 month payments of PITIA (principal / interest (mortgage payment), property taxes and insurance and HOA (if applicable).

Further, we need to account for a $10k “reserve” for what will be repairs / maintenance as the property ages.  

You also need to have reserves in case something comes up. 

Banks have cheap enough money and most have stabilized their reserves to be able to handle going to open market and getting a reasonable market offer.

When we did it, we did score some great deals, but what we found was that we were visiting so many properties to understand our "strike price" (the maximimum we would pay for the property when taking into account rehab costs, hold times, interest on any debt, closing costs, real estate commissions, a contingency reserve for "unexpecteds", etc) that the math started to not make as much sense.

How much reserve would be reasonable for TI/LC?

A big part of succeeding in this game is simply staying in the game.Make sure to take the lessons from this experience so it’s not in vain:•Always keep reserves.