Good thing about personal loans is there is no LTV/CLTV involved its based off off income and credit.

If this STR business is viable, or if there are better options for shielding W2 and rental income, I am funded and ready to roll.

Its not really a "tax break" - but one of the advantages of a cash-out refinance is that the cash-out is technically a new loan, not income, so its not subject to any income tax. 

What you can control is the monthly income.

So basically the application downloads my credit card and rental bank account transactions once a week automatically, then I take 5 minutes to tag each transaction with the matching property and then categorize with the expense/ income type.

Hi Kostyas, I am in a similar situation as you but have avoided the substantial presence test so far.May I ask how your foreign income is treated in the US?

Things rapidly went south when she couldn't understand why I needed to have income / expenses reported independently for each unit though.

I can see that this will do well in similar locations where rents are highest and people are looking for additional income.

The loan would be based off of the cash flow or return on investment of the property itself instead of your personal income.

Best practice is to have equity that you can sell if this happens or you are positive your W-2 income, good credit and equity position will allow you to refinance fast to another lender in the future if this happens.