If you do not qualify, you would then look into if you would qualify with renting your departing residence. 75% of the lease will be used to offset that departing residence mortgage. as you mentioned the timing of renting the place can absolutely be tricky so you would hope you do not have to do this.Finally, and I guess would be sorta of a trick, but we do bridge loans on occasion in this case IF you can qualify once you get the property rented at market value even if debt to income ratio is too high before it is rented.

However, these programs typically qualifies borrowers based on their income, such as tax returns.The DSCR would be a good option considering you and your husband are entrepreneurs and the tax returns don't look good on paper.

Their return would be backend loaded years 4 thru 10 and further out.  

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

As a rental strategy for non owner occupants, it absolutely is a fantastic way to generate the highest return, that's true.....but also, and most importantly, your screening has to be on point, and without that, it won't be as effective because one bad roommate can ruin the environment for the other roommate tenants. 

We were there looking for another property that we could buy together on the beach that we could rent out as a short-term vacation rental.We we're living it up and having a fantastic time zip lining, eating delicious food, and seeing the monkeys in the wild.it seems like from the moment I returned from that trip in August 2022 the real estate market completely changed.

Tenant Default: 0-5% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Section 8: Class A rents are too high and won’t be approved.Vacancies: 5-10%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Class B Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 620-680, some blemishes, no convictions/evictions in last 5 years.Tenant Default: 5-10% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Vacancies: 10-15%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 1-3 years for positive cashflow, balanced amounts of relative rent & value appreciation.Section 8: Class B rents are usually too high for the Section 8 program.Class C Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 560-620, many blemishes, but should have no convictions/evictions in last 3 years.

Specifically the area I marked in yellow.Any help here would be highly appreciated.Thanks!

@John Sherwood The areas you mentioned are certainly high-demand areas, but they come with challenges.

It's highly debatable whether $50k can be considered "reasonable compensation" if you make $200k from commissions on the properties you sell yourself (as opposed to a split with your agents).