I am in the opinion if the dog is in the back yard alone I should be able to walk in without reservation at any point.

I gather that most of the people who posts here has had been experienced in short term rentals so i decided to seek your wisdom on the current dilemma i have. just for background info: i have an STR in big bear ca that i have been operating for a year now. i had utilized evolve to handle all marketing and reservations and it has been ok so far. i have an upcoming guest that is supposed to check in on december 26 with a reservation for 4 nights. those dates are the highest priced days in big bear. i has been my routine to email my guests check in instructions 3-4 days prior to check in. when i did that to her, she responded back stating that she was trying to cancel for a couple of weeks because of sickness in her family and was trying to cancel. i checked with evolve if that was true, they said she never reached out to them and that she opted to not get travel insurance so we are not liable to refund her anything but it is up to me if i want to give her back a portion of what she paid. now this is not the first time this happened to me, another guest tried to cancel last minute to me a couple of months ago requesting that they get refunded even without travel insurance which i did (a portion) since she did it a week prior  and the dates were not so pricey as this one. and she had a sick relative too!!

You will not want to overextend yourself and have no cash reserves for vacancies and capex. 100->350 is a big jump and I would question the lenders motives quoting the 350, likely borrowing up to 350k will leave you cash poor, not a place you want to be in.

Be sure you have a good reserve should you encounter one. 

For example, if you have a lot of cash reserves, they may not be as strict on the income requirements. 

Its not the  ARV that cannot be over 50%, its the amount "of repairs," that cannot be over 50% of the ARV meaning if you buy a home at $200,000 with an ARV of $350,000 then your repairs cannot be more than $175,000 but I doubt many buyers/investors are doing or want to do that much of rehab/repairs anyway.rehab costs  of up to $175k in the above example above can include:- total rehab project cost- contingency reserve- inspections- up to 6 months PITI (only if uninhabitable during renovation, owner occupied only, requires FNMA consultant approval)- discount pointsNo tear downs, no new construction, no personal property in the above rehab figure, no construction of accessory dwelling units or guest suites, or alteration for bus or comm use.

I haven't had a real vacancy since implementing this plan.Faisal Sami you forgot to mention reserves.Most DIY landlord fail to set money aside for reserves then get bit when it's time for a maintenance.

It is then a good idea to leave reserves in your IRA/401k to cover unexpected expenses.

How much money will the LLC keep in reserves at all times?

Placing these monies in reserve prevents you from getting caught flat footed, when the tax bill comes due or the A/C blows up.