their credit was terrible (not that I expect any different for my 550 month 2 br house) and I won't rent to pet owners with unapproachable animals.

Think of it from the seller's point of view.It's a short sale, he's getting $0 at closing, his credit is shot regardless of whether the bank gets 40% of what he owes, or 99%.

I have very good credit and i know there are risks involved with any investments made but would love to learn the tricks as im sure everybody starts from the bottom up.

Sometimes I will post a great article in its entire form and give credit to the editor and publisher as its a great article, no need for me to sound like I wrote it.

You essentially have an officer guidance line of credit and depending on the bank, they have the flexibility to do a lot of things and get very creative.

Some investor or broker who has done maybe 300 deals has not done enough business to experience enough defaults and funding problems yet...you never know when you'll get squeezed for money.Best way is to line up with a bank or another institutional lender for a line of credit.

When calculating income, do I take my credit report debt ( my PITI + car loan) / my wife and my "job" income along with adding my gross rental receipts or is it just "job" income + schedule E rental net income(line 26) + depreciation? 

But my Question is, if i pay cash for it,Can i apply for some kind of Home Equity Line of Credit, or even Finance it, after i pay cash ?

Yes it seems silly to pay down a 2.75% loan but, as a line of credit, you still have access to borrow that money again in the future and in the mean time, you pay some what less interest.

I'm sure you've signed those credit card machines at grocery stores and had it look nothing like your signature.