Credit (cards) with Office Depot, Home Depot, office max, lowes, etc.  

I use 2% on condos to account for HOA and relatively low rent.  

I'm sure these are low-income tenants who aren't suddenly going to be able to pull another $300/month out of thin air. 

I keep getting told that the underwriters are going to see that I'm taking advantage of the rate/down payment (even if I truly move there which I would).We have clients do the Nomad model of buying a home as an owner occupant with low down payments, live there for a year and then convert it to a rental after a year all the time... sequentially... doing it more than once and have not had any problems at all.

The Texas VLB has an even deeper rate for Texas Veterans and will provide an extremely low rate that you cannot get anywhere else for veterans with over 30% disability. 

From the little experience that I have, they'll ask you a few questions crunch some numbers and will be able to give you the info you need. i think they may also give you a pre-approval letter if you have a deal on the table.

@Kenneth Liz when it comes to low priced properties like that in philly, make sure you know the market that you are getting into.

By trying to make the original sale price as low as possible and the assignment fee as high as possible you are not an agent of either party.That said if it appears you are claiming to sell the property and not the contractual rights to purchase the property it might be deemed that you are acting as an unlicensed real estate agent. 

The bank wants to start at $350,000 (which sounds low enough to get me excited).

also what 30 yr fixed  rate are you considering and what are the closing costs/ loan fees  associated  with the refinance …..you might ask  for  " low cost "  rate options for the refinance  in order to keep these expenses down …...if you refinance the loan to a new  30 yr fixed in order to make it cash flow better - always keep in mind that you can  apply extra payments to the new loan to  whittle the balance down