For you category 1 folk, remember that you too were in my shoes at one time and that many, many others on BP are in those shoes. 

Personally, In your shoes I'd just go the airbnb route.

However, the owner uses, as the realtor put it, the old shoe box method of accounting.

If I were in your shoes I would put 50% down on a 3-500k property somewhere and use this as a learning experience.

Granted, this comes with its own challenges and demands, but if your biggest sticking point is your DTI, this is the most common sense way around it I would think.Another thing I might try, were I in your shoes, is to strike up conversations with local community banks or other portfolio lenders whose underwriting standards are different from a standard mortgage lender who is planning to sell your loan to Fannie or Freddie.Hope that all helps!

So do you still think this is not worth it for you to spend what you would spent on a good dinner, a pair of shoes, neither of which will make you or save you $$ in the long run.

If you contact a developer / builder of high end homes, and offer to accent some walls in the model to showcase your work, I would think you would end up with lots of work.

Unfortunately it is what it is, and I've been in your shoes before with wanting to do things myself.What I've done for some jobs like that is had a GC I know pull permits for $300-500, then I or a handyman I use that the GC knows and knows he does good work did the repairs and had it inspected.

The first thing I would do in your shoes is to ensure that my personal assets are isolated from my business assets and my business assets are isolated from one another, in order to protect yourself from a suit. 

Other than that, it's easy peasy.I'd use shoe molding to cover the gap.