In Tampa it's common to find an entrepreneur that is running there own business and this allows me to verify how much cash they have on hand and assists me in calculating their debt to income ratio.3.

I also own 47 doors on the platform as an investor myself.

I was a property manager in Grand Rapids and managed almost 100 doors.

I would suggest that you rent the property and consider using a property manager who can finance the improvements for you up front and be repaid out of the rent so you can have passive rental income over the long run. 

Jeff,I would suggest another questions/request for info to add to your due-diligence:    "have there been any claims reported to you, submitted to the Insurance carrier, or that you are aware of, during the past 5 years"I would also suggest that you request that they get the "Loss Runs" (report of claims) for the past 5 years from the current owner. 

They are running at 66% occupancy which is good, but they would need to be near 90% occupancy which won't happen to make the numbers work.Keep in mind we are in Iowa in the Midwest. 

With all that being said, I'm hoping to start using sub contractors to handle the majority of my jobs moving forward, but I'm running into a small snag.The majority of the houses I'm buying right now I'm using hard money to fund.

Just run your numbers in all scenarios.

For example, if you are evaluating a flip that you know you can turn around in 3-4 months or a BRRRR (value add and refinance) and you run the numbers and even with the HELOC interest you will still make a good profit, in my opinion this is the best use of that line of credit.

One issue i will run into is funding since alot of dscr loans do not fund in rural areas.