They just want reassurance they are dealing with someone that can close.

Some would argue in support of a neighborhood in close proximity to downtown Sacramento such as the homes off of Lighthouse Dr, others would want to attract families with elementary school children who prefer homes in Bridgeway Lakes near Bridgeway Island Elementary School due to it's higher Great Schools rating vs.

I want the STR to be close to the main national parks and still on the fence weather it needs to be rural or closer a city.

I would look into some lead sources that you only pay if you close(Opcity etc.). 

I found it on Zillow and paid list price, less seller credits for closing costs How did you finance this deal?

You could get sub 5% a couple of years ago and even close to 4%. 7.75% for a no doc DSCR loan for an LLC is actually pretty good.

If the property owner is a "long time childhood friend", then she may be willing to cut you a deal where she pays for the closing costs and/or she may contribute to any repair/remodeling work that the property may need.Once you move in you could house hack and start saving money so that you can acquire more properties. 

If the OP does a lot of the work themselves, then they may be able to do it for close to the OP specified price.

Folks just have to realize NO money up front and especially.I wish BP would be able to tag the American Greed episode on REmington financial and tag Ingrid Robinsons website .. these were classic cases of fake lenders.. with Ingrid being the victim and taking down Remington who had been doing this for over 20 years.. those guys had some cajones they took Due Diligence and deposit money for all those years but never over 10k so anyone complaining it would not go anywhere.. it was said on the show that in all those years they closed no more than 3 or 5 loans.. both the principals got major prison time.the issue today is most of these folks are hiding on the internet or are off shore very tough to catch and your not getting any funding or money back thats a given.

HELOC= Short term cash needsCash out (or even a closed end second mortgage)= Long term cash needs