Check with your agent to see if you need to rewrite the policy and what the new rate will be as a STR. 

Verbiage could vary from state to state, or lender to lender, or by loan type, so you can always check with your lender if you're concerned.

Do  background checks work for out of country people?

Would start there/check that out!

I regularly listen to the bigger pockets rookie podcast.

I even checked in Cross Property Search to make sure these aren't being advertised in a different category. 

Also I would check the return on investment, if you were to make those improvements.

Check in with @Joseph Chiofalo for construction loans or construction to permanent financing.

Casey Check out this article published on BP last year on this exact topic - https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/brrrr-loans-what-are-the-...A couple of more notes:-The 12 month seasoning thing is likely due to the new conventional (Qualifying Mortgages - Agency Fannie/Freddie Rules) that rolled out last April making this the standard rule for conventional loans.

And then I double checked the math at the heart of it and found it was completely wrong.