Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

In this case even if the project went south and you broke even or even lost money, the equity (debt) you used would still be covered by the income you are earning on the rental property. 

The ads probably relate to a well known GURU on YouTube who convinces people to spend $12,000 to join his "community" and to send him leads.

The list comes out at least 30 days before the sale and the owners have opportunities to pay off the debt anytime in those 30 days. 

I’ve often seen this happen where initial approval is given, but debt-to-income issues arise once they discover you’re purchasing another property.

I’m not entirely sure I’ll ever be able to get her on a mortgage because she’s just so adverse to having debt.

It's like the blind leading the blind...for a hefty price of course. 

They started having a guy from a company called Pathways come to these events and get people to put 40k on 4 or 5 credit cards which put them in massive debt and wrecked their credit because of this dishonesty as well as other things said in the three days.2.

The total deal with debt was above $10M but the total equity in the deal was around $4M. 

Additionally, since my parents are nearing the retirement age, I'd like to prioritize low-debt, high-cashflow deals.