Has anyone else experienced this kind of mistreatment? 

Check numbers if you can live cheaper in a house hack vs renting.

A lot of DSCR programs I'm familiar with don't cut back LTV like that until you get to 5+, generally 1-4 units are classified together with maybe some kind of rate adder for 2-4. 

You can also check their reviews online at Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

Once we had the home inspection I was able to have the seller credit us at closing $8k...of which the escrow could not credit the entire amount and so I had the seller write up a personal check for $2000 How did you finance this deal?

You may want to check out your local real estate investment club.

Just curious if anyone is doing STR's in that market and what kind of results they're seeing. 

@Dutch Mendenhall are these refund checks actually getting sent out?

Check out some AirBnb monthly comps in your neighborhood to see if it is worth the upfront furnishing costs, monthly utilities and other expenses like professional cleaning and landscaping. 

Carefully check the documents they send you to make sure there are no red flags.