For conventional loans, your employment and income will be a huge factor in the bank deciding whether to loan to you or not.  

Are there any hard money lenders that are ok with drive-by external-only appraisals?

The lender will determine that by credit score, DTI, and various other factors so don't be discouraged if it comes back a bit higher.

.$2000-insurance/yard$525-mortgage$900=$575Option 3 would be to find a 3 unit building that could make between $1875 per month after all expenses and mortgage and scale to $3075.00 with upgrades.Of course option 3 is sounding better but finding a 3 unit building at my price is not going to be easy.The 1% rule is becoming clouded when factoring in the cost of the home refinance.Please provide feedback on my way of thinking.

A key factor is going to be whether or not your window sizes are standard or not.

Realistically there are other factors which influence this (like interest rates, which obviously cannot go any lower).

@Mitchell Mahnken - I do not own any mobile homes but I’ve learned some things about them through my RE readings and BP podcasts.Because they do not appreciate in value like a traditional home (they actually decrease in value) you would need to factor that into your math.When considering your exit strategy, how much would this sell for after 10 years, 20 years?

Certainly, it is crucial to know the market you are investing in; and one of the most important factors to analyze in a market is the population.This being said, you should only be investing in a market where the population is rising steadily.

Even if you get the credit scores up she may still need to work on those other factors even recent late payments. 

Once you factor all of these in, my guess is your NOI and profit on resale come down a bit, but still sounds like it could be a promising investment.