So it impacted my credit utilization significantly. 

You should not be involving yourself in people's lives without knowledge of the situation, and awareness of your impact on the situation.

If you weren't able to get an approval, that would have impacted the price you'd be willing to pay.

What’s changed in the interest rates of the debt instruments have continually depreciated.I’m just curious how this impacts valuations on real estate.

Any changes there could significantly impact the outcome.Lastly, 4.25% interest rate isn't out of the question, but again, you want to make sure that is a rate you have locked in with somebody, as a first time investor may be staring down something in the 5%-6% range. 

Equity in the subject property impacts interest rate pricing.

Dont want the monthly payments too high to impact with my cash flow.  

While the cause of this (likely) upcoming recession isn't real estate specific like 2007, how will the impact ripple into the RE markets?

Get your hands on the various impactful books out there (Rich Dad Poor Dad!)

Obviously, this type of financing impacts your numbers, but could be a way to scale faster than involving a bank in every deal.