@Jonathan Blanco, I'm and investor and a licensed mortgage broker so I've been on both sides of this conversation.I would look for a lender that (1) listens to you and understands your strategy and needs (hint: it's not always money), (2) has experience working with clients executing your strategy and brings more to the table than just cash - be it advice, relationships, deal-team partners, etc., (3) gives you viable options and explains the pros and cons of each option and (4) you enjoy interacting with - this should be a relationship, not a transaction.Once you find a few lenders like this (and you should have relationships with more than one), then you can start comparing rates and fees.

We've utilized the VA loan for our current home, and this strategy has worked well so far.

With this strategy, we knew exactly how each house was operating and we could intervene or change leadership of the house if necessary to assure operations were going as we expected. 

That's a dangerous strategy, and one most would advise against.

I would recommend what is your plan and strategies too on the rental.

I was wondering if there were any builders who have any good strategies on where to buy land when you're looking for spec homes.

What financing strategy would be most effective?

It may be simpler to pursue the STR loophole strategy as there is no limit the losses used to offset your W-2 income.

The best strategy is to buy properties that need fixed up with hard money/HELOC, fix them up, the refi out to pay back your HELOC/hard money.

However, I wouldn't say it is a complete tax-free strategy.