He explained to me that he has 5 kids and is going through a divorce and tons of credit card debt from redoing the kitchen - all this stuff that isn't my problem. 

In general, once you have no late payments for one year and your credit cards aren't maxed, you should be in the mid 600's for a score, and begin to be eligible to tap that equity.Good luck!

@Griffin StephensCredit cards (used responsibly) can help a lot. 

I don’t want to do a personal loan or use my credit cards, no 401k, and no friends/family that has means to lend.

However I’m getting stuck on the Refi stage, I’m not an American Citizen, I am in the process of applying for a green card......

Since I would highly recommend using cash/heloc over a hard money loan, everything you have will be reserves, including credit cards (which I hope you have access to)Other people's money? 

@Victor Paez, I have purchase a property with hard money, and then used my credit cards to renovate, and then when it comes time to refinance, my debt to income ratio was tight. 

Bought for lot value $23k on 3 credit card checks. 

And how great that is. but a vacation rental dollar is not the same as a long-term tenant dollar. 3% credit card charge, software, insurance that can be two or three times more expensive and may be hard to get, the industry trend for listing sites to charge a commission to the owner such as booking.com at 15%, the fact that vacation rentals require self-employment tax, Linens and cleaners and maintenance people who have to keep it perfect, every possible kitchen appliance and coffee setups add toilet paper and soap and everything else, up to 30% to a property manager. so maybe if you're lucky a vacation rental dollar is 75% of a long-term tenant dollar.

If we have a new LLC to maintain the rental portfolio but the rental properties are still in personal names is it OK to spend money on the rental property using a business credit card and collect rent to the business account even though the LLC dont own the property but the properties are still owned on the personal name ?