She later remarried, paid off the mortgage and I gifted my part ownership to her and still lived there.

I asked her, "How do you typically use this gift?" 

That guideline is lender specific, so I would suggest shopping it around. 

There have been lots of stop and starts with businesses opening for a few months to a year only to close due to rents being too high and not enough people to patronize the shops. 

As well as coffee shops like Bottoms Up Coffee are moving in and small microbreweries like Brew Dog and Land Grant 

I just recently listened to you BP episode.I have also actively been looking in the Flagstaff area with the Short Term Shop agent over there after talking to Avery, @Luke Carl.

As mentioned above your new rate should actually be 6-7 range not 8s so shop around.

While these contractors are certainly out there, in my experience they also tend to be the ones that work with home owners directly and charge "retail" prices, not "investor" prices.I would shop around with lenders to understand how they work with their loans.  

I am always up for sitting down at a local coffee shop and just talking about real estate. 

The big wholesaling shops in our states are spending their own resources to actively lobby for wholesaling to prevent it from being banned.