If you are talking to sellers, a majority of them that want to sell need to sell the traditional way via an agent/mls.  

Just figured I'd chime in on that because I bought one last year after using a traditional roof rake for the past 12 years on my own home.

Hi @Dave Bopp,I obviously have not seen your finances so this is in part speculation, but if the lender you spoke with did not include rental income from the hypothetical property you are looking to purchase in the math (most wont), then it's entirely possible that a traditional mortgage is still an option.

@Michael BoyerIf you wanted a Roth, you could convert your Traditional IRA funds into Roth.

I'm having difficulty securing traditional bank financing due to large student debt and being a 1099 employee, so I'm just trying to brainstorm.

If your lender is citing Fannie information, that is a traditional loan to your personal name.

That said, I'd like to establish a repore with my new tenants and introduce a platform that makes the rent payment process easier for all parties.  

If the city could prove that the home was either not lived in for a year or that it was used for any commercial use then they would deny the certification and traditional residential financing would be a lot harder to get.Something else to keep in mind is that if I did change the use of the land I would need to bring the standards of the lot up to today's standards.

Most traditional lenders don't offer this type of product.

Unless things have changed in the new year, there are also some 5% down traditional mortgage programs where you won't have to deal with FHA requirements.