@Owen Hawbaker any traditional bank or mortgage company is unlikely to give you a 100% loan on your first rental property.

Cats like to play with mice until they've killed them, and then unless they are starving just leave it as is (given the choice a cat would eat a live animal versus a dead one any day).

Is a Heloc or 2nd mortgage a poor choice if I can get this property in shape by January/February? 

It wouldn't help you a ton to refinance into a traditional conventional loan, as you would reset your owner occupied clock, and would need to stay in the property another year (give or take) before you could secure a new owner occupied loan.

@Jamie GoldenbergIf you don't have enough capital for a traditional investor 20%-25% down payment and you will be living in the property; I would suggest a FHA loan with 3.5% down.

Went with Jet Lending and they are considerably high but I had no choice. 

This would not be a good deal for me, but that's a very subjective question.2) Objectively you should refi for 30 years, but there are many subjective influences that can make 20 years the best choice for your personal situation.Sorry, this only qualifies your question!

I had never heard of renting a property by the room outside of university systems and would like to know if anyone has experience with this and what criteria they used to chose this over traditional property renting.

And another poor renter will be “homeless” (or more likely living in their second choice for location and safety.)People always use the lie that 97% of experts agree on global warming.

Our first choice would be to rent it out.