1) Consistently - at least once a month, ideally a bit more.

Although not ideal, maybe there is an option to refinance into an FHA loan where the DTI can be higher.

For too many years they overcharged half of their customers and undercharged the other half.

Mind you these are MLS listings that I’m looking at, but I’ll be in Chatt Aug 16th and then I can start getting hands on with the areas and working with my realtor to maybe even find something off market in a more ideal area.

It boils some to little things like customer service and knowing a closer that does a great job at staying on top of the file to make sure it closes smoothly and on time.  

If they are less-than-ideal in any way, then I'll be a little harder on them like only paying for portion or paying for the entire thing but then giving them notice of termination.

Ideally I’d love to have something like a HELOC and only pay for what I use.

Perhaps it isn't your ideal, but if you can force yourself to tolerate it for at least a year, you'll come out so far ahead, it will shock you.As for the other part of your question: the forums are a great place to learn.

You'd ideally be winning in the "rent savings" department, but also be cash flowing each month.

@Valerie Rogers For your direct booking site, did you use an OwnerRez template or a custom wordpress site?