We have a unique spot close to a major international airport (SeaTac).

@Daniel MatajiraIt’s international building code - that is how it is recognized everywhere

All the major systems of a house age at different intervals, so every single resale house is always going to be on the verge of a major component needing to be replaced.

When I put a loan scenario into the industry insider search engine and sort by rate/fees, 1st and 10th place wholesale (but not retail) have the exact same rate. 1st place might be $200 less in one-time fees per $100k borrowed than 10th place, which we internally call 20 "basis points" (bps). 1st v 7th place might be only 8 or 14 bps off.

You will want to know the basic components of the property, especially the big ticket items - roof, foundation, exterior, electrical, piping.

The lending component is very important, and you want a lender who you trust.

So unless they plan on holding the loan internally, it has to adhere to those rules.

@Matt Tallent if you are using Fannie/Freddie types of loans then I have included their guidelines below...HOWEVER, a lender can absolutely put rules OVER the Fannie/Freddie rules that make their own internal lending more "conservative".  

Maybe you can go on Craigslist and offer to intern for some contractors or volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

I rent to college interns at a couple local companies.