Our first accepted offer was a 320 unit deal that we contracted, put up non-refundable (yeah, I know) earnest money, and thought we had our financing and money in place to do the deal.  2 weeks before closing a major (several million) partner pulled out leaving us short of the funds needed to close. 

Fannie Mae has a requirement that if you want to use the rental income from the non occupied units, that you MUST have a current housing expense which means you cannot live rent free.

Do one task at a time in each app to compare apples to apples.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.

@Shayan SameerThe non-paying tenant could impact your short-term cash flow, so consider the potential costs and timeline of eviction in your state.

By 2030, we want to have grown a portfolio of over 100 units, created a property management company that manages an additional 100-200 units, and, finally (and most importantly), we will have established a non-profit that is focused on quality, affordable housing that specializes in providing housing and resources at/on the "services cliff" alongside financial counseling and first-time home buyer education in our target area.Our target area is the Springfield, MA and Hartford, CT areas with dreams to expand to Central Massachusetts (Worcester, MA), Southern New Hampshire (Nashua, NH), and Southern Connecticut (New Haven, CT).Would love to meet up with likeminded individuals in our area!

Still, based on all the non-verifiable hyperbole used in his presentation, I passed.

As a matter of fact, I have openly ask a couple of posters before to tell me more about their services on an a public thread and they were happy to do so.

If you are in a state where eviction cost is high and it is tenant friendly you may need a higher credit score to offset default risk and eviction cost.If you are in a landlord friendly state where it is easier to get non paying tenants out you may be able to handle more none payment risk.  

I talked to my lender contact and, as Kerry mentioned above, it's pretty uncommon that a traditional lender would offer a HELOC product on an investment property (non-primary home). 

I've been through situations like this.Hopefully the family pays rent and this becomes a non-issue.If they don't pay the rent, you need to be understanding and kind, but firm.