You have to live at the property for an undefined period of time, this is ideal for small multi-family as you can acquire the whole building with no cash down, live there for a while and still rent out the other units.

Your last two years are averaged to give you the 24 month avg net rental income that you can use as additional income on your application.Hopefully that makes sense.

Here are some points that may help others in their letter writing campaign:Be professional in you content - get to the point in the first lineDon't draw pictures on the envelopeDon't draw dollar signs around everything - don't draw pictures of stick housesBe yourself - tell your story; example - we are a family business, looking to purchase additional properties for our family portfolio - we can pay cash but would prefer some seller assisted financing, glad to supply references if needed - we live in the area ----etc.Forget the YELLOW thingDon't tell on yourself, don't call yourself an investor - Don't lie - I can settle in 2 days - we are big (like a made up name -) people like to do business with others they can identify with - be humble if that is possible.As for sending letters to vacant houses that are Free and Clear - why do all that research - a waste of time in my opinion!

I have the property under contract and will be closing with cash, I then hope to execute the additional transaction (sale from me to end buyer for the higher price), both transactions will be at same title company; double close.

When you get into adjusting for square feet thing get a little more complicated when you look at values for the marginal (read: additional) sq ft.  

Contact local community banks in addition to the credit unions to find a lender to do the Refinancing.  

Additionally, I have a lot of clients that are private money lenders if you are ever in need of financing.

A great deal is to be able to acquire and rehab a property for about 60% of the After Repaired Value (ARV)....

It is difficult to acquire more than (3) homes using conventional lending. 

If you cannot convert it into really useable space, what if you split it in half and put coin op washer/dryers on one side for your tenants use, and on the other side, put storage areas that tenants can rent for an additional fee.