May favorite condo I put down $2000 and another $2000 I put on a credit card. 

They can even pay via credit card and the Tenant pays the fee, not you (again they don't have to pay any fees if they use ACH payment; totally free for both parties).  

Anything else I got by putting the down on a credit card or taking equity from something else I owned or best yet, doing a "subject to."  

.- It does not matter where the money to pay this mortgage came from: from another property's cash flow, from your savings, from your credit card or anything else.

Hey @M BoydHere are your options#1 use a residential conventional lender as the one you are talking with now they will verify the loan based off of your finances mainly so ya they will check your credit score and your DTI I dont think your DTI will be an issue unless you got tons of loans and credit card debt etc.

need to play the cards your dealt..  

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An amazon gift card or grocery store gift card is always appreciated by my tenants.

Your HELOC is like a credit card.

Are you going to print business cards?