Someone mentioned Associated, Be Careful, Associated screwed a lot of people when they needed a bunch of commercial off their books, around 2011 or so, the didnt renew, and didnt give adequate time for many of their customers to find alternate funding, I was a listing broker for their REO's at the time and even the Asset Managers said it was pretty crappy what they did. doesnt mean they will again, but be cautious.  

But you can just bypass DTI altogether and look at alternate sources.

The alternative is to lock in a 30 year fixed with today's super low rates

Thickness• With a variety of thickness options available, bamboo flooring is a viable and cost-effective alternative to installing ¾” hardwood, which can sometimes be a project constraint. 5.

If not, what are the alternatives?

Another alternative (not as good) is to take the property subject to the electrical system being in proper working order, and have an escrow in place, held by the closing entity, to be released only upon proper inspection and passing results.

I share your fascination with alternative housing, having built a sleek tiny house on wheels as well as a having worked on octagonal houses, post-and-beam houses and geodesic domes. 

You can look into alternative refi options that don't weigh your income, dti, or credit as heavily.

I have used realeflow and It helps a lot, but I am also looking for better alternatives if there are any out there.

My belief is that the collective intelligence of forums like this one is a great start to get alternate ideas, especially in real estate.I mean, I see discussions of 10% coc return in these forums.