I think you'll find that lenders can be dramatically different from one another, especially when comparing national banks to local banks and credit unions.I would say visit a couple more banks, be forthcoming with your situation, and see what they say.

I compared the rent to other townhouses in the area, there are some going from $800-1200. yes, the house did build equity.

Be an innovator not a copy cat and reap the rewards, or endure the failures.

Do they have a great rewards program?

But it really comes down to the comparable in each market.  

If you are trying to compare various methods of passive REI, I wrote an article on BP awhile back that takes a look at Three Key Routes for Passive Real Estate Investing

We will pay a $3,500 upfront fee to get started with F&G which is cheap compared to the 10% fee that MCC would charge on the total amount of business credit that they obtained for you.

Parts of it have been, such as the Leonidas area on the West side of Carrollton and also the East side of Carrollton. 70118 also includes the Black Pearl neighborhood and the areas around Audubon Park which are vastly different neighborhoods compared to around Eagle and Palm. 

I like growing fast which means more risk but much richer rewards.

Third you get better interest rates on a primary residence compared to an investment property.