(an attractive location for any small business) Currently 2 salons occupy 2 of 3 commercial spaces.

But they are getting fixed rate debt or floaters (with caps or swaps) at very attractive terms that are typically not available to most non institutional borrowers.

However, keep in mind, in a competitive market, all the contingencies can make your offer less attractive than those without.

I've tried various things: shorter inspection time period (typically it's 10 days here, and if you do a 3 or 5 day inspection time you can be attractive b/c the seller can get it back on market quicker if you find something you don't like during inspection period); non-refundable earnest money (maybe $1000 of money that you will not get back for any reason on your side - not if the seller breaches-- should the offer not go to completion - this shows you are an extremely interested buyer, but you could lose the money, so use cautiously and with the advice of your agent who knows how to correctly write that into the contract); put a limit on the repair request no required by lender - cap it at $0/as-is, or $500; a higher earnest money - like $5000, shows you are serious.

Pick something fun and interesting that will attract people to your meetup on a regular basis.* Initially, you will have some meetups where either only a few people show up or none at all.

Don't over design.

The article said that HELOCs are floating-rate instruments, so they're less attractive to take on a floating-rate loan at a higher rate than a general low and a fixed rate.My issue is that I don't want to pay $3,000 to do a cash-out refinance and I don't know how long it will take to get a deal (WHATEVER I define a DEAL as ;) ), but maybe I'm missing something here...If you are approved for a HELOC and the value of your home goes down, will you still have access to all of the funds?

The larger and more expensive rentals will "likely" attract people with more means to sue you.#4 - Do most of your tenants have kids? 

The larger and more expensive rentals will "likely" attract people with more means to sue you.#4 - Do most of your tenants have kids?

Just need updating and adjustments to attract high rate STR guests in the 5 rental units.When buying these we were initially approved by 3 mortgage co's for conventional mortgages, just to be later rejected because these are multifamily bldgs with land deeded to each bldg while also being within the grounds of the condo assoc.