A few ways:- Find a lender who will lend what you need- Find a partner who will put in money in exchange for equity- Convince the seller to hold a note- Purchase with an option contract- Line of credit against another asset

Your best bet is probably going to be to look for smaller local banks or credit unions.

The only strategy I have seen so far, and I forget who provided it, was to try and clear as much debt as possible on single family homes and pre-qualify for HELOCs of other lines of credit to be able to start buying at the downside of the cycle.One person mentioned in a facebook group I am in, essentially, "don't worry about it, just hold everything tight and wait it out, it will correct itself."

My credit union is going to order an appraisal... what other upgrades will make the house appraise more (basically I’m looking for bang for the buck)?

He was open and honest and said that he had bad credit but I was shocked when the application came through and he has $40k in collections as recent as March 2018.

I'm doing some math on a couple houses and I figured I'll reach my max DTI after two houses with a typical local bank and their conventional loan products. 

I am buying homes that wouldn't pass appraisal standard for the low credit/low down loans and cleaning them up and rehabbing for the first time home buyer with marginal credit etc..   

Installing meters may be expensive, if you install solar, products such as Enphase allow you to install CTs to monitor the usage for your units.

What should I do with a potential tenant buyer who says he has up to $50k to put down on a property but he has very little credit so he probably can't qualify for a mortgage in the near future? 

Try to have your personal debt under control, have a good credit score and understand you will need some cash and reserves the amount will be determine by your market.. .