After he was successful in being more profitable than his neighbours (one thing he's done well with is driving traffic to his direct booking sites to cut out the host sites that take so much in fees) he started taking on investors that put the 20% down for say a DSCR loan.

The only time I know of recently in the US when house prices dropped was about 15 years ago when banks had been lending money to people that should never have been given loans.

@Wayne Kennoff- thanks   1) getting a personal referral is a good place to start 2) if you have narrowed down the options to a few -  contact both on the same  days and ask them for whatever  quotes  for your scenario ...ask for a loan cost worksheet  if  possible .  ...if their pricing ends up being  the same - make a decsion based on the  feel  for  cutoner  service you get when communicating with them.   3)  make sure they  disclose all the fees  related to the  refinance  ( not just their  own fees ) ..4)  reviews are   hard to  use to make a decision ( as you found out ) 5) rates are pretty high right now for rental  properties ....if you can wait to  refinance - you might consider doing so ...if you need to refinance - so be it ...Good luck 

Understanding this background on the situation... does anyone have previous experience with single income households where the "bread winner" goes on maternity leave and then has issues paying the rent.

Anyone familiar with a resource that helps in this situation?

Have you checked out using an FHA loan for a multifamily househack?

Also, I can't tell anything by just this post but there are investment property loans that don't require 25% down. 

The FHA loan house hacking wouldn't work for me for at least a year due to me having a year left in college.

What is your personal situation?  

But that's why I'm here :-) Hey Travis I am in a similar situation to the author of this post and would love to get your advice about the market as well.