It is worth mentioning that besides my current student loan, I have no credit whatsoever (don't know if this would be an issue when I apply for mortgages).

Rent has been reduced by $200 during these 3 weeks.The first mortgage payment of about $3000 is due on Oct 1.

Or can I use mortgage to buy a house and use the hard money for the labor?

Here are the stats: Construction costs - $50,000 Purchase Price - $225,000 Current Appraisal Value - $375,000 Post Construction AV - $440,000Current Loan Amount - 195,000 Rental Income - $2,800 Mortgage + Taxes + Insurance - $1650 Liquid Cash - $10,000My partners and I want to get the remaining projects off our plate and are trying to figure out the best way to make it happen.

Here are the stats: Construction costs - $50,000 Purchase Price - $225,000 Current Appraisal Value - $375,000 Post Construction AV - $440,000Current Loan Amount - 195,000 Rental Income - $2,800 Mortgage + Taxes + Insurance - $1650 Liquid Cash - $10,000 My partners and I want to get the remaining projects off our plate and are trying to figure out the best way to make it happen.

Then, when the insurance money comes in, they can use it to pay off their new mortgage, or at least a big portion of it, and they will not have to deal with the FEMA housing and uncertainty for years. 

From a strict buy and hold for passive rental income i think it is a pass strictly based off these numbers:your rental income is 1850Your listed expenses are 888if you finance this for around 148-150K mortgage going to be paying around 800 a monththats 1,688 leaving you with 162/m cash flow without a property manager(assuming you do the work yourself)**Maybe look to move the utilities onto the renters to increase margins **CASH on Cash is about 4.8% to manage this yourself are razor thin numbers. 

In the last 9 days, I've contacted an agent, contractor, hard money lender, property manager, insurance agent, and a mortgage broker.

If you have enough equity in one or more of the properties, then you could do a cash out refinance on one property to pay off the mortgage on the other.

I ask because a 30 year mortgage payment (P&I only) for that property would be $2,192 with a 3% interest rate.