I found your guide to columbus ohio which i found extremely helpful.  

Wouldn't hurt to look in to both to give yourself the best chance at finding the best loan product. 

Same experiences as above....great product with very helpful customer service and they always seem to be adding new features.

However, if you intend to work with a hard money lender or utilize a short-term loan product, you're on the clock for repayment, which can be stressful if things go sideways. 

.- Many of these HCOL areas also have strict limitations on AirBnB or short-term rentals... that do not apply to owner-occupants - thus allowing for extreme cashflow potential for house-hackers.

Hello,I am a Software Engineer and a Real Estate Investor working on a tech product for the real estate mortgage brokers.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

Reflecting on the last 20+ yrs, when we could cash flow immediately with low cost sfr, had we gone with the higher priced properties and significantly lower cash flow, more debt, we could not have achieved IRRs even close to what the lower end product has delivered, nor paid off the investments. 

@Dennis KnappJ Scotts book on estimating rehab costs is a great start. https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/the-book-on-estimat...Here is a "general" rule of thumb for my market in Jacksonville, FL.

Self-showing services are extremely common but that should be in the contract.