@Justin Jacobs, if a conventional lender is denying you based on DTI, you should carefully evaluate your position & risk. 

A lender doesn't foreclose on 12% of a property, it forecloses on a property.... all of it.But, sure, you can do a 1st position cash out refi where it's only your credit/income/dti/etc that's evaluated. 

We'll get the full evaluation next Wednesday.As far as I understand, the right course of action is to fix the crawlspace and any foundational issue that's caused by the water, then install the flooring. 

You will either have to hire and fire successive agents (shotgun approach) or you will have to study and evaluate an individual for some time to see if what others have told you is true (Sniper approach) sorry there isn't a faster way really outside of a lucky pick. 

Getting a complete Application in would put the foreclosure on hold while he is evaluated. 

Brought with her and provided me a folder of the full listing and other docs.Gave us space and time to just view and evaluate the house and grounds but was available for questions. 

Risks that I see are rent control (already in some places), lessoning housing regulations (there is a proposed regulation that would let any SFR be converted to a duplex, there is already ADU rules that allow an ADU to be added to most SFR, and parking requirements are constantly being reduced to allow more affordable building options), possibly at top of market (which if past history is an indicator even if Bay area is at top of market a new high will be established in no more than 8 years), potentially any number of other potential Landlord unfriendly regulations (no STRs, disallow criminal checks, rent control (already discussed), longer more onerous eviction procedures (already can take a while in some cases), mandating acceptance of Section 8 (already true in some areas), etc.).You evaluate the return versus the risks and determine if the investment appears sound. 

That way you can spend your time evaluating and making deals rather than driving around and researching owner information.There are several effective lists for finding off-market deals.

I'm still a few years away from that next step so I evaluating deals in the meantime made sense. 

Does anyone have any actual data to evaluate that might predict this?