Someone can be a brilliant tax person but horrible to work with, and also vice versa. 

At a high LTV your leverage will be magnified.If your cash flow really is break even (I have my doubts) then with the magnification resulting from leverage, you could produce a fairly good return (ROI from leveraged appreciation, equity pay down, tax benefits).Good luck

Most of my renters are nurses, engineers, and tax payer funded employees (Government workers). 

Said it was one of his tax clients & would not give me their name.

So you are able to get the cash flow, tax deductions, etc.

On property number one, I would cash flow $750 a month after mortgage, taxes, and insurance if I also rent out the unit I live in.

Is your DSCR ratio greater than 1-meaning are you cash flowing (according to the lender's criteria of mortgage, property taxes and insurance (and HOA) if applicable).

Credit is a factor as bad credit may limit options, or may have the lender require you to put 10 or 20 years of taxes and insurance into escrow. 

Typically, the adjustments I see on appraisals for basements are more flat rate adjustments. 10k is usually the number I've seen.What stinks is that there are a couple of model types that have below grade space where the builder, I'm sure, was trying to lower the taxes by having it below grade so the county wouldn't count that space in the assessment.

Pretty much think of a commercial loan process as a residential loan process backwards.Lenders do go off the income of the property, but they also do check out the purchaser...3 years tax returns and a personal financial statement.