Simply put the risk of a non-renewal costs more.

Not just a non licensed investor. 

I'm a Navy public affairs officer, so I move every couple years, but I'm currently in Germantown, TN (near Memphis), and I've been interested in RE my entire life.

I got to my current financial success through a series of well thought out endeavors but with a massive sink or swim element as I am often self guided..."

If curious, here are the last two: Jan 2023: Multifamily Real Estate is At Risk of CrashingFeb 2024: Multifamily is at High Risk of Continuing It's Historic CrashI think that the title for my 2025 analysis (likely Jan/Feb publication will be something more like:Multifamily is Finally Going to Hit Rock Bottom in Q2/Q3 2025 - Get Ready to Buy a LOT of itAs usual, I like to publish my draft thoughts here to get input from key players in the space and these forums, especially folks like @Brian Burke, to see if I am missing any high level areas, before I get into the weeds and look at the data more deeply and regionally. 

Public school teacher, so I have a pension.

The "non conforming" lending options are actually called NonQM (non qualified mortgages).

I am familiar with being licensed thru nmls but never heard of any other type of certification  means nothing.. its just a private company non accredited.. 

As a matter of fact, I have openly ask a couple of posters before to tell me more about their services on an a public thread and they were happy to do so.

I know property managers in every state who use non-refundable application fees and it is the standard for every class of property and applicant.