The buffer was nice to have, because people living paycheck-to-paycheck are always one problem away from not making rent.

it doesn't matter if they are having personal issues, they are living in the home and have to pay rent. 

Turned it into a nice bright home for someone to live in.

They will likely only allow you to transfer to a revocable living trust which has no creditor protection.

IGMS has live chat which is helpful. 

We are looking at purchasing a home and renting it out in an area that we want to live in eventually in the Tahoe area.

Welcome @Yoshua Rozen, do you live in Austin?

Thanks to our rise in equity, last year I refi’d our house out (just rate and term-no cash out) into a conventional 30-year with the same 2.75% interest rate, so that my VA entitlement could be fully restored as we don’t plan to live here forever, and could then use it on our future primary residence, while keeping this one as a rental.

From Cleveland OH, lived in NYC & Charleston SC. 

I looked at their fees and thought OK I would pay more for a hard money loan anyway and could use the help to get funding. here I am with a bunch of crappy consumer credit cards flying out to a house I don't even live at.