Its just knowing which ones to use to get what you want and what the pro's and con's are between each product given the goals you're trying to accomplish.A lot of bankers and independents in socal broker to TCF like Chris mentions above.I've had good experience getting rental income to be used in similar context to the above mentioned.The formula is simple for rentals that dont yet show up on your tax return its 75% of gross income minus PITIA (principal/interest/taxes/insurance/assessments) to arrive at your net income figure that will either be added to your income column if its positive or a liability to be qualified for if its negative.In cases where you just want to do a cash out refinance loan you could use 1 year tax program with Freddie Mac to avoid having to average both your 2015 and 2014 which causes more paperwork and more things for an underwriter to sift through and demand verifications and documentation on.The nice part about using a 1 year tax program for self employment or realtor income (in your case) is that since there is only 1 year tax for your self employment we only need to use 1 year tax income on your rentals  as well which is a little known secret in the residential conventional lending world.This is great when you have a great 2015 or past return but your 2014 or 2 year ago return was not as good.

I sent in all the paperwork to the bank and so far all is good.

So essentially, if the property's income is north of $20k annually, he would need a zero interest setup to pay the principal down for a year.  

With all my ways to get things at wholesale pricing and with the ways of knowing how to essentially get it all in there, while saving money on other things and still make a chunk of change at the end, I'm all for it.  

I stayed in my rented apartment for another month until I had fixed all the essential appliances, painted and put down new flooring. it was a mild inconvenience for the extra 60,000 in instant equity i had one year later. 

However he is offering paperwork from his lawyer so it seems he is covering all his bases which makes me feel more secure.

Tedroy-Find a qualified and experienced contractor, do not settle for cheapest, you want experience here, because their is a significant administrative burden not only paperwork, proper formatting, but also financial constraint on the contractor as these sometimes have $0 prepayment to contractor.

I installed signs, ran contracts around town, filed paperwork, etc.  

My scenario is I have a few colleagues interested in investing their money in real estate with me, while I do all of the work involved (not property management, we have a company for that) but more of all the looking at properties, dealing with the banks, paperwork, lawyers and managing the property management company.

I know some things are coming in the future but essentially you are paying for the future improvements in the area and they aren't there yet.