In March 2018 I paid the required minimum of $800  fee to Franchise tax Board for the year 2018.

@Manuel Naranjo As long as you didn't use the home sale gain exclusion on another property in the last 2 years, you should qualify for the full exclusion.IRC §121(b)(5)(C)(ii)(I) states that otherwise nonqualified (e.g., rental) use would not include any period after the last date that the property is used as the principal residence of the taxpayer or the taxpayer's spouse, so it essentially doesn't matter that it was a rental from December 2014 - June 2017 for purposes of the home sale gain exclusion since the last date you lived in the property as your principal residence was before you rented it out.Depreciation recapture is another story.

The borrower and the asset itself.Borrower:Your credit (are you a trustworthy borrower), are you capitalized enough to float this project/ cover the debt, track record (borrower/ contractors experience).Asset:Comps (as-is & ARV), LTV metrics (lender can help verify these if you have questions), detailed budget and scope of work, tentative schedule, exit strategy.Of course any lender/ partner will dive in a little deeper after the initial pitch but if you have all of the above ready for your initial conversation it will go a long way in getting deals approved/ partners on board.

I would be interested in FHA, but I wouldn't qualify since I can't live there.

It sounds like you're existing portfolio may not qualify but there are several companies offering 30-year fixed on 1-4 unit residential.4) Build up  a cash cushion to see you through any high-interest period.

The tenants income is not sufficient to support the rent payment so I used the temporary housing agency as their income qualifier. 

Now my DTI is maxxing out and I wont qualify for loans in the future.I am looking for advice on options listed below or direction im not seeing.Option 1.  

My goal is purchase a multi-family home that qualifies for FHA financing.Thank you!

This way, we could have the benefit of locking in the option to buy the property but we wouldn't have to qualify for the loan just yet.The way I think this could turn into a "househack" of sorts is if we found a different property to buy, instead of following through with the option, and then turned the lease option we were in into a sandwich lease option and started making money on the property after we moved out.

Shaun Alexander I would pluck out those trades from his contract to an addendum, you obviously don’t know contracts, talk to your license board and see what your options are on suing if he doesn’t comply.