Some lenders even offer the ability to extend the term of the loan if needed.If you plan to buy, renovate, and rent for cash flow, you'll want to ensure you can qualify for a traditional refinance within a few months/years of taking on the project.

Question from a newbie investor...I've listened and read quite a bit on small MF units (2-4 units) and the prospect of higher cash flow and the ability to house hack sounds great to me as a beginning investor just starting out.

(keep in mind your cash has the ability to earn a return anywhere other than being buried in the property in question) I would venture to guess that the majority of investors buying properties valued above 100K with cash (no mortgage) are not making a single dime generated by the property itself.

The pro for buying now would be the ability to lock my rate and not worry about rates increasing between now and closing, and of course the lower price.   

For this reason, I did a bunch of research here and online and found a great “dumb” thermostat that simply allowed the ability to set a max limit on the temperature, regardless of what tenants actually cranked it to.

Another con is that most HELOCs will have a variable interest rate so make sure that whatever you buy (if it is a buy and hold) can still cashflow at higher interest rates or make sure you can refinance and get your money out and pay off the HELOC for that property.For pros, the ability to continually use the funds over and over if you so choose makes it a great benefit to use as down payments and even for rehabs as well. 

For me it’s two things - CAP rate at purchase needs to be at least 6% with the ability to increase to 7 or 8 and the cash flow of the property needs to be at least $500 dollars above the PIT.

I have only exchanged a few emails with them so far, so I can't vouch for their ability, but I found: http://thetaxhandlers.com/index.php in Sarasota.

I am not an expert as it relates to FHA/Conventional dis-qualifiers, however, generally speaking if a foundation sound in nature they typically will be deemed unsafe as they are concerned with its ability to not bear a load as it once could have.  

I would love to meet and network with the other RE investors in the community, and I would love to be able to contribute to the best of my ability.