With rates going up, my concern would be if they increase more before you rrefinance.

Account ClosedThis is a tough question to answer without knowing all the facts.Where is the foreign investor's home country.You may need to look at the treaty between the US and his country to see if there is any exception.You should also be aware that there may be increased withholding at closing because of dealing with a foreign investor.Furthermore, the income may be considered "effectively connected income" requiring w/h in behalf of the foreign party.

It can be hard estimating rehab costs for a normal home, I'm guessing fire damage increases that difficulty even more.

Earnest money (or in the case of an option: Option Consideration) is money paid to create an interest in a contract.

To make matters worst, HOAs increased by about $100! 

I know the rehab "R" would be more like getting more storage units rented or increasing the rents rather then fixing up the property, even though you could do that too.  

Hi All,I am starting to get some interest from family with respect to leveraging some of their cash on deals to increase the rate of return they are seeing with their other investments.

With 200 units, at least a portion of those will want to buy in the next 5 years.If the area really builds up as a result of increased residential units, you will have a good investment on your hands. 

Looking to get in touch with some more to increase my odds of finding something that works for me.

There would be no refinance in this situation since there was no original financing to begin with.As for the credit cards, to get a single card with a 20k or more limit would be based on your credit history, but American Express has been known to be generous with initial limits and credit limit increases after 60 days of opening the account and then 6 months again after that.