The problem is im not sure if that is a great idea and if it will work out.

You have to run each tenant through their paces to see if there is a real need for a workout or not.Investors are buying NNN deals.

then the fact that investor credit has really dried up.. so a lot of these cant wait for the crash investors we see on BP wont have the capacity to buy anything any way..

I do have a good network of people here I will be contracting the work out to but anything I can do on my own to cut cost I am more then happy to do.

I'll even review any existing surveys for you at no charge.I hope things work out with the neighbor!

I was hoping to put that money down on the new place to lower my monthly mortgage payment (paying PMI with current mortgage), but the timing of the sale couldn't work out.

@Bob Prisco Most of the people on this site, as you can tell by many post, are not investors in any capacity so there's a very steep learning curve to get past before they are comfortable investing for the first time. 

My personal resides and the two rental properties wiped out my DTI capacity.

I didn't realize this was non-owner occupant property.I'm not sure of how to work out the logistics, but if the person gifting you the funds decided they wanted to be paid back, you could both sign a note for longer term payback, say 5 years with a very favorable interest rate.

A dining room can be a dining room, a play room, an office, a video game room, a workout room (yes, I've seen some of my tenants do that), or just a place for a ton of crap to land.