So, there's this property.... 

We are new to REI and have been searching several months for our first rental. We have put offers on two properties to no avail. Now, we have our eyes on a third. There are bowing basement walls and a wet basement. I'm a structural engineer and have seen way worse, so this doesn't scare us off since I know it is repairable. Unfortunately, it does scare off banks! I have little hope that we can get financing. So, we'd like to do a cash offer. Our plan is to pay cash for the purchase, pay cash for the fixes and then do a cash-out refinance.

Questions:

1) How long do we have to wait to do a cash-out refi?

2) What sort of loan-to-value ratio can we get for a cash-out refi?  Someone told me that we could only get a loan of 65% of the total purchase price plus repair cost.  That baffles me.  Why wouldn't the bank just look at the property's current value instead of what we paid to buy and fix it?

3) Are there any other creative purchase solutions that we should consider?

Thanks for any guidance you can give!