Did you ask them to send you a photograph of the items that concern them?  

DarylI have just a few items to add to Ben's great tips on hard money loans:DIRECT LENDERS:  A lot of hard money lenders say they are direct lenders when in fact they sell the note after funding.

Recently I picked up a "Power Plunger" (Item#99644) for $5.95 on sale and a 25' drain cleaner (Item#66262) on sale for $11.99 at Harbor Freight.  

This will check off all three of the items for you. 

If a home contains all these items then square footage isn't the issue.

I agree on doing an inventory of the items there. 

Sounds like you have a good list of items to tackle.  

The 1st item I noticed is that you are being told your Husband's OT/bonus income is not being counted, this should not be the case, if there is a 2 year history of receiving this income and it's increasing (as it appears it does) this should be used in your qualifying income in addition to the base. 

It closely reflects a thought I had when I first connected with my current group about how they could not just make extravagant statements but actually "walk the talk".To the OP's point however, let me re-interpret the "myth" for you:Yes, it takes money to do just about anything.The point is that it doesn't necessarily have to be YOUR money.As long you have some other value to bring to the table, thru networking and relationship building you'll be able to gather folks around you who have an abundance of money but a dearth of what you have to bring to the deal, whether that be time, effort, knowledge, or some other item(s) of value.

Tell me what items you need to get the job done."