Located in a promising area of Richland, MO, the home was a blank slate for value-driven improvements.

This is a good thing if you want to do some rehab, but again, you must be very strategic about how much money you put into a place, knowing it won't naturally appreciate beyond what you create in improvements.4) We're having a bit of a zoning crisis.

Burned my *** too many times lol.I am here to learn new strategies and take part in discussion regarding landlording and home improvement.   

And keep in mind that the rate on the 2nd lien will likely be 10-12% so depending on the cash flow it might not actually yield that much cash to you at closingMore importantly, it's just more debt so ultimately it sounds like you need an income-producing event to actually improve your situation and avoid some of the consequences that you mentioned

If credit is the issue, talk with your lender to run a credit simulation to see what actionable steps you can take to improve it.  

Don’t buy expensive courses when you can learn everything for free on YouTube.

This is just the latest case study of how Government is incapable of improving housing affordability on its own.

For example, if the listing is selling for 200% of the last purchase of two years ago with no improvements, etc.?

@Tim ZozI see him post a lot about infinite banking on YouTube.

US Treasuries will not see their credit rating improve, and will, within the next 12-24 months get another (small) downgrade, inching up treasury yields.