My husband went from W2 to self employed while working for the exact same company doing the exact same thing with a significant investment portfolio and enough income to cover the mortgage many times over, and was denied for a loan because he didn't have 2 years of self-employment tax returns. 

Keep up with the educational side, figure out exactly what type of property you want to start with and find your first project.

(Scorecard)+ Building value (by the way he hasn’t attempted to sell us anything yet but it’s coming )+ conditioning the audience ( at this point we’d probably bow to him if he asked for it ) Day 2 afternoonIt’s almost time to go.

Get a friend to pretend to be a new tenant if you are uncomfortable doing it alone, but you need to know the condition of that place. 

It seems the secret to your success is that you worked hard AND benefited from market conditions that are unlikely to be repeated.

Also, the house next door, which is in same condition, has less sq footage, smaller backyard sold 2 years ago for 183K.

We do this all the time in multi family and we submeter through a 3rd party that does exactly what you have notes

I understand rates are variable according to areas and prop condition, etc.

Unless maybe you only focus on fsbos that are also in bad condition?

However, every small bank that I've approached has exactly the same requirements.