Which governing body determines these requirements?

They/you can't choose the carrier - their software assigns it.Fortegra is one of the carriers (paper in insurance parlance) that their product is written on.That said, Fortegra is A- rated I believe by AM Best so that isn't the issue.I'm going to take a guess and say that your umbrella is written with PersonalUmbrella.com (Markel) and they require all underlying insurance to be A-rated but also with an admitted carrier. 

Sometimes, buying an existing property can be more cost-effective and less time-consuming and maybe require slightly less permits, etc. 

Understand the local permitting requirements, keep eyes on your property to avoid squatters, and make sure you have a great vacant insurance policy while you're renovating.

HUD 4000.1 (I believe) is the latest HUD handbook and it goes over all requirements for originating the loan, including but not limited to occupancy requirements and exemptions.FHA occupancy : "At least one Borrower must occupy the Property within 60 Days of signing the security instrument and intend to continue occupancy for at least one year."

They were thinking of planning another one that required massive loans (7 figures). 

I recently joined the forum and would like to quickly list my requirements without much ado.1.

A STR is a completely different animal in my opinion, in that it requires more work and much more compromise, but financially is worth the effort. 

Although, some of the information was not required either time and some was required both times.

And, yes, inspection deficiencies can hurt your valuation because once they are disclosed, you are required to disclose those to future buyers.