And you're probably going to pay 3 points or so upfront for that hypothetical hard money 2nd mortgage on an investment property to 70% CLTV, assuming you could get it.I don't have any credit reports in front of me, but I'm pretty sure you can do a little better than 4.83% at a cost of three points.

Along with a credit report, I have read that other documents for a rental application should be included.

I have 750+ credit and zero other payments. 

If you want to manage it yourself, get a merchant account set up so you can take credit cards and plan on spending the $800/yr on HomeAway or VRBO to be included in searches.

I like the part that when they pay on time, it helps them build their credit.

I ended up paying the HOA fees with the additional costs of the collections company - totalled at $6700 (the fees themselves would have been $4000) A couple of years ago they lease the condo to couple due to the wife's high credit rating.

Unfortunately we have to start from scratch with the credit profile with neither of us having lived here before.

You have banks ( local,regional,national), credit unions, life insurance companies, & CMBS lenders.Who does what loan depends on location, asset type, and size of the loan.

It will help justify any credits or discounts you are asking for (Lower than asking price offer). 

b) Buy/rehab the property5 - After the "seasoning period" required by your lender, get the property refinanced.6 - Take the cash from the refinance (this is why you use cash to start with...and not a loan) and repeat Steps #4 - 6...as many times as you want/can.Note: After a certain point, or even in the beginning, you may need to involve cash partners to get the needed cash together, or a credit partner if you can't get approval for the refi's.For me I didn't have the cash to put down, so I used a hard money lender.