And you can’t always count on new businesses or stores to come in unless pushed for by locals.

Also banks in our area want pre sales before ( for some builders they will do the construction loan) or in my case they will give me 12 specs loans but pre sales with 5k non refundable do not count against my 12 specs.. that's how I can build out a small community in 12 to 16 months..

Our plan was to rent it out, but we have the house on a 3% 15-year note and it would only break even or be a slightly negative cash flow (not counting debt reduction or appreciation).  

My utilization will be too high if they don't count rental income.

Does that count?

The rent we requested was below the HUD FMR for the area and bedroom count.

Lender is saying we're unable to purchase an additional investment property because our credit scores aren't over 720 (Fannie and Freddie guidelines after 6 properties..). 3 of our properties are financed with private equity/promissory note- do promissory notes count towards the limit? 

The only score that counts is the one that your lender pulls.  

So they count the debt against you, but don't consider the rental income.

You'll be taking the classes for HS credit anyways, so if you can get the classes to count for college credit for free/cheap, there is no reason to not try to do that.