Based on the numbers seems like it was a straight forward conventional loan...any challenges?

Stop reading if you want.2) I couldn’t guess what “There is a 6 months of grace period before interest payment begins” means.3) They call their $3555 charge a “Loan Fee,” stated a few lines up as 2%. 2% of $235,000 (loan amount) is $4470.4) Do you seriously believe the loan fee, “… IS 100% REFUNDABLE IF THERE IS ANY DEFAULT FROM THEPART OF THE LENDER OR IF THE BORROWER CHOOSES TO TERMINATE THE LOAN.”5) It’s okay to pay an appraiser directly.

You can buy a rental house, put $60,000 down and you will have to get a non-recourse loan for the rest of the mortgage.

Should we pursue a "cheap" rental in order to build rental history in the hopes of securing DSCR loans down the road? 

Meeting a 20% down payment to avoid PMI seems manageable, although would take a big chunk of my liquid net worth, and I prefer this route over using an FHA loan.

They then missed out on several more years of growth because they got out of the game and waited on the sidelines for things to look better. 2010 to 2012 was the period that cash investors were the players or those with IRA keep in mind investor loans were still basically non existent in those years for all those expect very well to do Investors beginners were not getting investor loans. 

Credit Unions are pretty great, as in my experience, commercial loan renewals tend to be automatic.

I read that one of the requirements for getting your second FHA loan is having a change in family size.

so you're recommending that my starting point should be finding a real estate agent, utilize theirbknowledge to learn about the process, and get referrals for good loan officers.

That is usually how they determine your LTV (Loan To Value).1.