I’m using cozy for now but looking for an alternate payment method.  

Would it make more sense to: Purposely forgo legal tax write offs to show higher income and then more easily qualify for conventional financing, at lower rates and better terms ORKeep taxes as low as legally possible and seek alternative funding via private or hard money, typically at much higher rates ORIs there a 3rd alternative I'm not thinking about... like credit unionsWould greatly appreciate to get your perspective on this.  

An alternative is to employ site-specific engineering, where you get a structural engineer to sample the soil to determine the force of the freeze, and then size the beams and bolt systems to accommodate that particular scenario. 

With home ownership out of reach for the middle class in Los Angeles and rental costs skyrocketing, I think people would be interested in alternative solutions.The community I was thinking about involves a combination of manufactured homes and mobile homes (tiny homes and RVs). 

This implies you cannot simply find an RE on the MLS that will have positive cash flow.So look at alternatives.

One alternative to that would be to offer "Cash for Keys" where you offer an incentive for the tenant to move out before the term ends. 

Alternatively, can you make an offer while waiting to get approved?

There's a small but active group of Rhode Islanders here who will be happy to help you with any questions you might have :)I also typically recommend people attend local RE investor groups such as RIREIG which meets monthly in Warwick and Black Diamond REI which meets monthly alternating between Worcester MA and Burlington MA.I know a lot of local investors who also work full time, and it can be a grind, but the nice thing is, banks love to see that W-2 income so it should be easier to build up (though harder to juggle everything, of course :)If you haven't already seen it, I do recommend the Bigger Pockets Ultimate Beginners Guide and of course, the entertaining & informative BP podcasts.

Especially if you could focus on student housing, Georgia Southern is expanding as a university and becoming a viable alternative to other big state schools like UGA since those are becoming more and more competitive to get into.

Better alternative tax shelter account for real estate investment is the Solo 401k (see also self-directed 401k, QRP, eQRP).Fortunately, the money you put into the Roth IRA (your contributions) can be withdrawn for any reason without paying taxes or penalty, but the earnings cannot.