Death, divorce, and debt." 

Remember that after debt service most landlords on a SFH might be making a couple hundred bucks every month.

There is a system we use called RUBS which is RUBS or Ratio Utility Billing System is a method of calculating a resident's utility bill based on occupancy, apartment square footage, number of beds, or some combination of factors.

Roughly half of your rental property expenses will be from the debt service on the property.

My question is: when I / we go to get pre-approved for a loan and they look at the debt to income ratio, will the lender (a bank) look at our combined debt to income ratio?

How much debt do you have?

Is this for debt or equity?

Kelsie,Most of the hard money lenders you are speaking of usually fall into any combination of 13%-16% annual interest only; 2-5 points at the closing table to process the loan and 3/4 -1.5 points a month interest only.Please double check your lenders’ criteria, they may have restrictions regarding second liens during construction, meaning they prohibit anyone placing a second lien on the home during the construction process. 

@Josh Merrell only you can decide how much debt you are comfortable with.

With this tactic I also keep debt on the unit, which limits the amount that someone can even sue for.