Next time you are there, check to see if the Pergo is buckling/peaking a bit at the seams--that's a sign of moisture.If this is to be a rental, I'd completely rule out carpeting and look at vinyl planking--it's water proof, and easy to maintain and repair. 

After adding value via rehab then it is easy to refinance either with a Fannie/Freddie loan (some need seasoning) or with a blanket loan solution.  

It's easy to have the payoff well above the original loan amount, especially if the second was interest only. where no principle was paid for X amount of years.

Paying out mortgage is not that easy, we are considering in selling our home to buy a smaller one, but this area in under development, so I know our house will appraise more in the next few years.

Those traps dry out and it stinks to high heaven but it is an easy fix! 

It would be easy to do a "mini" cost seg though and take the low hanging fruit. 

Cleveland is an easy place to find deals that cash flow but is this realistic and if so, any advice on how I would go about this would be very much appreciated.

Understanding DTI is easy.

Perhaps there are some markets with so many eager, talented, cost-effective, and reliable workers it's easy to find them at exactly the moment some folks need them. 

This also hints that there are two easy ways to fix this double counting.