Don't count on rents improving or prices declining to a point where they make sense for a cash flowing rental. - not likely to happen.

Would those count towards the four they want to allow? 

First thing that comes to mind is whether the conversion was permitted...otherwise you cannot count the square footage (and room count) when you market the property. 

Your IRA and 401 K may be used to count as an asset but the bank will want to see cash reserves in an account that has seasoned for a while.

i prefer buy an hold but i counted 22 homes from PA line to buffalo.  

The standard Fannie and Freddie guidelines won't count many of my rentals because most have less than 2 years of income and some have less than 1 and none have leases because they are less than 30 days.

So if you can only work an extra hour a day, make it count.

Because in your example, if a calculate returns while counting the $130K in equity left in the property as my money the returns aren't as great.

I was told by a mortgage lender that in order to count the potential rental income from the duplex (to qualify for the new mortgage) that they would need a signed lease up front before I could purchase the duplex and get the mortgage.  

Usually you need two years of experience as a landlord before you can start counting your rental income or part of your rental income as income to qualify for loans.