1) That it's held up as an indictment of Fannie Mae mortgages. Someone with four leased properties and being savvy enough in the property market to buy and rehab a fifth should know better than to approach a FNMA-backed lender for a 70/30 cash-out refi. Even FHA, previously one of the less-stringent guarantee agencies, only allows four properties under the same ownership.
2) The author is shocked that a program designed for purchase money financing on a buyer's owner-occupied property would turn down an investment landlord.
3) The author makes no mention of approaching any other financial institution or lender. Since, given point 1, he is pretty good at construction but poor at leveraging other people's money (not a slam, that's what _any_ investor wants to do), he wants a bank that writes and services portfolio loans. Which, by the way, means he'd probably be required to want a loan at no more than about 80% LTV across all five properties.