School is done, stores and restaurants will open back up, people will start to travel, sun will kill off the virus and reduce the number of infections, and people will be tired of all the nonsense. 

There should be value added to the property, this should reduce vacancy, BUT do the upfront costs and maintenance $'s added to my CapEx budget negate the added value?

With deferment, your payments may be due once the designated time period ends or they may be tacked onto the end of your loan (basically extending your loan term).  2) A Forbearance :  Allows  you to make reduced payments or no payments for a set period of time, though your loan continues to gain interest during this period.

Remember, when you have a GOOD agent, they will fight for your best interest but every dollar the purchase price is reduced, that typically equates to money not going into their pocket.

Why that prediction: We just received a notice from our daughter's university that because of COVID-19 they will have to reduce the density of student housing in the fall.

If I reduce that down even further (pay down a big chunk when refinancing) would that help with rates?

Factor all costs into the hard money loan but push very hard to have the property reduced to offset the costs of the violations.

I see the typical fee listed, must be a high interest rate.They do pull credit (soft pull) so you have to qualify for the loan.People making good money doing short term rentals should be putting back reserves to weather a couple months with reduced or no income.

By "numbers" I mean population, population growth, income growth, job growth, job diversity, lower crime, lower vacancy., etc.

If the property you are looking to purchase cash flows, then it should be reducing your DTI on paper, not adding to it.