I'll be going through a few of our fix/flips, buy/holds  and our lead generation, acquisition, renovation, and disposition process -- good ones and bad ones too!  

If your credit is stellar and you have some cash reserves, you may be able to start with a hard money lender (HML), but they will likely only finance 80%.

I feel bad because I know they won’t be able to find a place to move with such a large dog.

The applicant has no verifiable income (he is an artist and woodworker), but has basically zero debt and an excellent credit score (almost 800).

NEVER ever send a lender money in advance other than maybe a small deposit like 100 or 150 bucks to run credit etc.. and then most will have you pay for the appraisal directly.

All have the same logic, they all think it is a bad situation, but they both act and decide differently.Let me repeat.Being in foreclosure has ABSOLUTELY ZERO impact on being motivated or not.The biggest mistake you make is this.You think that a motivated seller is someone who wants to, needs to, or has to sell their house.That is why you make this mistake in thinking.This is not the case.A motivated seller is anyone willing to sell their house below market value, and the reasons why don't matter.Now with this new data, consider your message.Being in foreclosure could make them motivated.Take someone in foreclosure.

I wanna hear the good, the bad and the ugly from everyone.

In reality that's not bad at all considering you only have 32k into a deal that is fully renovated and you have another 25% equity in it. 

How much do you keep in cash/credit lines to maintain a portfolio this size (no need to provide cash figures, but months of expenses would be interesting)?

There are a couple of credit unions and small banks, which I can join to use their business banking services, even though I am not a resident of TN.