What’s the downside?

The only downside to buying at auction is the competition but like you said, looks like no one else is making offers so, maybe that will be the same at auction.

I know that is not what you are asking, but ice makers just present a situation where the upside is small and the downside is expensive and time consuming.

A couple of downsides to them is that tenants typically only commit to 1 or 2-year leases so there is a lot of turnover making it more labor intensive. 

When surveying the lot the only downside that I can see is that it has a really high power line running over one side of the lot and continues through the neighborhood.

I do not see a downside to small homes.

@Brandon Singleton there really is no down side to the VA loan.

Most people are used to cash advances from typical big banks like Chase, B of A, Citi, Wells, and such but credit cards with credit unions like Penfed.org, navyfederal.org, DCU.org, BECU.org, western.org, obee.com, and other CU's have rates in the 6.75% - 9.99% range which is often times cheaper than most hard money or private lenders and most of these CU's also dont have the typical 3% fee/points charged upfront for the money either.The big banks charge 18-24% usually on cash advance and they limit it to 20-25% of the total credit line so a 25k limit only provides around 5k of cash advance max while CU cards typically offer the full credit limit for your cash advance if needed.The only downside is if you max out a revolving line you'll typically drop around 80-100 FICO points till you pay it down to 0-30% of each cards respective limit.No bank will lend money when using credit card funds as equity, this depends, if you take it out during the conventional loan transaction and the underwriter knows its cash advance then you're right however, if you take it out and have the funds season for two full months on your bank statements then its no longer considered unsecured funds (credit/revolving) then you can use it for your down payment.

The biggest downside for us is that it is not linked up to our CRM so when someone picks up it seems like we are always scrambling for a second. 

@Jeff White already hit the nail on the head as far as your options, and I'll agree that split strategies is a great way to go, as you hedge your bets against any downsides.