I am looking at my first rental property investment, with the current rates and San Diego pricing cashflow is very hard, so I wonder if I should remove tax property and insurance from my cashflow calculations as they are 100% deductible at some point.

You cannot spend too much time on any one door because you cannot charge beyond the market rate for any single door, so each door needs to follow the process efficiently and precisely. 

We ended up with a lender that specializes in tiny houses out in Utah, but they ripped my arm and leg off in terms of interest rate and down payment.

Regarding your question, DSCR lenders are funding millions of loans a month right now- it's not hard at all to find a DSCR lender. 

They then decide if they are willing to list with the agent.If you have substantial capital and can close quickly, with cash, no inspection you might be able to do what you are suggesting.But a bank is incentivized to get as much as they can, with the least amount of hassle and they will believe their real estate agent before they believe you on numbers, closing time, availability of funds.

@Devin Cutler I've had lenders tell me the funds cannot be used for things like "business purposes", "educational uses", and "new property purchases".

Regarding the LTC (loan to cost) this will vary depending on your funding source (bank, private equity, etc.).

You would use a similar one to analyze SFH/MFH deals - except your self storage one will be a lot more in-depth - how many units, size per unit, rate per unit, unit mix etc.

How can I find a way to make this work when I only have 20K of my own funds to put in?

We're considering our options for moving forward.Numbers:Purchased for ~ $230,000 (2.5% interest)Remaining balance ~ $220,000Appreciated to ~ $400,000Cash flow is ~ $500 a month after setting aside for all reservesOptions we're considering:1- Cash out refinance- at current market rates, rough estimate is that we could access close to $100,000 in equity, but our cash flow would go to $0 or possibly negative for a period.2- Sell now - if we sell before the end of the summer, we could still qualify for living in the property for 2 out of the last 5 years for the additional tax benefits.