For tax purposes, you are better off if you do NOT exceed the larger ofa. 14 days of personal use per yearb. 10% of the days it is rented as an STR (example: if it's rented for 300 days, you have 30 days of personal use before you lose tax benefits) 

However these are probably not move in ready, so you might have to do renovations and you don't recover that.HOA liens are risky and you likely get wiped out at some point.I'd say mitigate your risk by NOT buying condo foreclosures, but neighborhood HOA foreclosures where the HOA dues are more like 400-$600/year, so maybe you pick these up for $1500 and live in a $300,000-$400,000 house for a year rent free. 

We do HELOCs as well. 

Can folks provide recommendations on agents willing to do so ?

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

Also, do you give any different considerations for cats versus dogs?

I don't do any formal pitch deck.. 

I would generally try to avoid insurance claims if you can because insurance is getting out of control nationwide, and we are seeing in FL, TX and CA that claims can follow the house and/or you and make it very difficult to sell the home in the future.Within the mortgage expense category you have 4 separate charges: principal, interest, property taxes, insurance (if you escrow taxes and insurance which 95% of our clients do). 

@Joe K.I do not know the details of your specific situation (amounts owed, class of property, etc.), but, in my experience, it is a waste of time.

How can I refinance so I do not have to return the property to previous owner?