@Michael P.You will not be able to get conventional financing without an income producing job.

It will likely never produce positive cash flow.

Think of Backyard as both a producer and a marketplace for selling major aspects of the home, in any shape it might come in.

Some from savings or other income, and some from income produced from the property.

And, admittedly, selfish as this makes me, this also makes them a potential future resource for other things like brokers, lenders, investors that I might be able to tap into should the opportunity present itself, which is more important than whether they are another mass produced legal professional that knows where to obtain and cut and paste phrases from an online database so as to then bill me $350 / hour for their "expertise". 

I am wondering how many of you have turned your basements into income producing rentals?

I currently use top producer to track leads and showing time service for feedback.  

I've played with the numbers and it works as a house hack but it leaves a lot more wiggle room if we leave all 4 units producing.

All are currently rented and producing income.

They are a good option and will not need to be educated by you.Otherwise, you are going to need to push your plan provider to give you the support you need to utilize the plan they have produced for you.