Different investors have different needs, so connecting your deals to the investors who's needs are met by the deal is essential. 

Essentially buyer beware. 

Essentially, eliminate the long term financing piece and just do HELOC...at least for a little while. 

But as you said, being prepared with either an early renovation or a maintenance fund is essential @John T.

They purposely chose to delay paperwork we need to close on our other purchase.

I really wasn't sure who would be the correct folks to help me with the paperwork part....

The draw back to these loans is that they are more paperwork heavy than the other "portfolio" types of loans....but if you have ever received a loan on your primary home, it's likely that you will go through the same type of paperwork here with conventional lending.

Once your friend accepted rent from them, he essentially accepted their tenancy.

Essentially it was a 2-4 unit property as far as the lender was concerned.

Few landlords and PMs do this and I just don't understand why.Housing Authorities' ease of business varies widely across the country but I find in general, once you learn the processes, you can count on them every time so if something isn't going as it should, you can reach out to keep the train moving on paperwork and such.Feel free to reach out if I can help further.