I believe Fannie/Freddie guidelines are that only the current balance/payment is counted towards DTI, while many lenders will have more stringent guidelines that could possibly count up to the maximum payment if the line of credit is fully utilized. 

It checks credit, criminal and evictions for $26.00 and then gives you a pass, fail or conditional with larger deposit.

Then, if you have a lot of equity in those rentals, instead of looking for a HELOC on individual rentals you can get a business line of credit that using the equity in the properties as collateral for the loan.  

I guess I was thinking that based on present credit rating, We wouldn't be able to qualify.

You'll still be paying rent to someone else, but you can negotiate rent credits, and it's essentially your own home.

The property is occupied (would likely try to have it delivered vacant) and I would put down 5% which is the most I could afford and pretty much the lowest traditional mortgage would allow.

Before tax reform, you could deduct interest on HELCO loan no matter how you used the fund. ( for eg you could use that money for rental or personal expenses )For example, interest on a home equity loan used to build an addition to an existing home is typically deductible, while interest on the same loan used to pay personal living expenses—such as credit card debts—is not.Using the loan for a Rental activity does not qualify for interest deduction in your Schedule A as an itemized deduction.  

The rates and terms will be more favorable with Fannie/Freddie if you're bankable.If you qualify for conventional you can transfer the properties from the LLC to your name and refinance.If you need a commercial loan then you should start calling local banks and credit unions.

I have good credit and was looking to put about 25% down on the property but any financing I tried to obtain they measured it as a risky investment for this reason (which ended up making sense once explained).

I can pull all of my equity out of this car and get a 1.6% interest rate on a used car loan from a local credit union.