With the cash you have, I would put 40%-50% down to get yourself the best rate and put yourself in a position where even if you had to rent out the property on a year-long lease the rental income would still cover the mortgage payment. 

We have money for a 20% down payment.

You can still find houses around Tampa for like 200-250k, meaning my cash budget would cover a down payment.

.- HELOAN option - There is a small chance that you can pull out the equity using a DSCR HELOAN but make sure to calculate the blended rate and total payment before moving forward and comparing that to a full new 30-year fixed loan.

What about the ground up developer that exhausted their interest reserve because  the construction debt was tied to the fed rate, but the project is still perfoming well and they want to hold off on refinancing a bit longer because its still a great long term hold but given the pre-payment penalties they are opting not to lock into a perm rate yet beleiving favorable financing will be available with a patient approach.....

Why trade a 3% mortgage payment for an 8% mortgage payment, on a similar priced house?

  $50k is going to be tight...we always talk about down payments of 20% like that is all that you need.

That's another down payment right there.

With residential properties and hard money lenders, they will usually have an option for financing the property's renovations as well.There are a couple of caveats: first, most lenders will require a property down payment.

Of course you don’t get payment until the application and process is complete and approved by the committee then you allow them access and that’s after they paid the SD.