In my opinion, I would avoid the FHA loan and get a traditional 30-yr fix loan at 5% down.

Did you use traditional financing or a HML

Hi Shalabh,I'm currently working with a client who is overseas, and for a few different reasons wasn't able to use a traditional Fannie Mae lender.  

I have basically been given two options to accomplish this, have however much money I need to buy and rehab a property in my checking account or use a HELOC and then refinance with a traditional mortgage to get my initial cash back out of it.

this is a good problem to have, but it's becoming more and more of a headache.With rental applicants I started off doing a traditional online application using a vendor who offered upsells for nationwide background checks and so on.

So obviously this is not a traditional approach to retirement savings but it's certainly a viable alternative.

In addition to traditional options, he suggested taking out a HELOC on our current home as a way to make a cash offer with quick close and then finance with a more traditional mortgage product after the property is secured.

I shopped around a few traditional banks and they were all high so I just settled on the lesser of all the crappy options.

Pass on this guy and get a traditional tenant for your first go.

Association has no rental restrictions so I plan to keep as a traditional rental until I see how the city of Miami Beach regulates STRs.