If tenants are not paying any rent and there are services you can decrease (ie garbage removal every 10 days instead of once a week) to cut some costs and NOT impact their quality of life, then do it. 

Aren’t Expenses meant to decrease?

Put simply, no one really knows for sure what these buildings are worth right now.Eventually, as a few deals are done, we will start to see a large enough sample size to begin feeling more confident in the new market conditions and word will spread to sellers that it may no longer be viable to expect the price levels that marked the irrational exuberance at the end of the previous expansion.How This HappensAs a result of the pandemic we are already seeing decreased consumption across US markets, which results in decreased revenues for businesses, which results in less money to pay to employees.

There is no set amount rent increase, but guidelines say need to provide two market comps, and if you ask too much they have right to decrease your amount.Terry

And for me, I don’t want to start those relationships in an emergency situation...while figuring out their fee structure...on a potentially stressful timeline...with who knows what else happening in your personal life.Good luck, and congrats on considering these next steps!

Huntsville has not seen any price decrease so there is that reason as well to just be on the sidelines and wait till there is some sort of correction!

This is the lowest cost, least stressful way to deal with this. 

You're just going to stress yourself out for something you realistically can't enforce.  

As for the current credit crunch with servicers currently happening, I don't know if that would increase the likelihood of your loan being flagged or decrease, but I would tread carefully.

So really, the only way to decrease my DTI is to buy homes through seller financing since that is usually not reported to the credit bureaus?