I work with and represent alot of private/hard money lenders, and unfortunately I am seeing more and more stories of people saying they paid an application/lock fee of 5-15k and the "lender" simply ran off with their money. 

When you're looking in C/D areas, it's hard (not impossible) to hold to strict rental applicant criteria (3X rent for income, no previous eviction history, etc).

The date of closing my listing went up and I started getting applicants right away.

Everyone I've reached out to said they would call or send me an application.

I've took a peruse through the search function and didn't really find anything applicable to what I'm trying to figure out. 

On your HELOC application, did you request an amount you wanted to borrow or just the maximum LTV?

I'm a handyman and my mind wants to fix a lot of things, but 2 units are currently rented and the 3rd has had many applicants according to the property manager. 

It is a lot more expensive to install than carpet if it is commercial you could probably put grip tape on the stairs as well if you are worried about liability.

.  The address she provided on her application stating where she used to rent at belongs to someone else.

Any suggestions for more applicable markets that allow cash flow?