The house will be used as a short term rental.   

I am looking at structuring a deal and I'm worried the DSCR will be too low and the deal may benefit from restructuring by purchasing the 2 vacant out of the 12 otherwise occupied units with hard money as opposed to trying to purchase all 12 with a institutional loan just because I'm worried the 2 vacancies will drag down the DSCR for the new purchase.    

I could go on for days about why you should run from this company.

I also only accept cashier checks or money orders at that point because I don't want to rent to bounce and be even further behind.

If you're going after fix and flips then you'll need real estate-flip loans which are short term and high interest - in which case they care more about the property/deal than how leveraged you are (but they do still care, along with how much cash you're bringing into the deal) 3 - Similar question, same answers above. 4 - Yes... sitting on the market for 4 months is weird UNLESS that's the norm in the area.

Takes time and money to do so.

Cost segregation is not just a short-term relief from taxes, it can be a powerful tool used to optimize your portfolio.WHAT IS A COST SEGREGATION STUDY?

I can afford to have it be an investment for my kids and not cash flow for me, but I could also deploy that money elsewhere.

Hi - sharing an article published here on BiggerPockets last year on this exact topic - all the financing options for Short Term Rentals!

Also, if they require a full appraisal on a short term loan, that is an issue as well.