Matt,Will respond to your email shortly.

I am looking to get a 30 year fixed mortgage shortly (construction to perm to be exact.) and am trying to find out the best way to file 2016 taxes to increase chances of approval.

Short answer, we bought at a price somewhere between actual value based on actual numbers and what it would be worth when run by a reasonable operator.  

Other sources of stress:  divorce (can be searched for by short time of ownership and quit claim deed), probate is not as easy as it sounds and turn around is often >12 months, vacant house... 

I've had a couple of buy and hold properties but now I'm actively looking at ways to achieve more passive income through short term rentals and multi-family units.  

In short, I think this speaks to the frothiness of the market and any system with less checks and balances (i.e. now they can just buy anything the "crowd" may not have liked) is worse off. 

I personally have multiple HELOCs (each with six figure credit limits) and haven't had the limits reduced, but then again I've only had them for two years and the values of the homes securing the lines haven't dropped in that period of time. 

They can try to do a short sale and get money if it's an underwater asset.

Check with the "seasoning period" of the bank you wish to refinance with.

In short, if you can evaluate a deal as an equity player and its the right deal you will be compensated both in fees/interest and in an equity split.