Most people with school aged children put house hunting on the back burner during these months.

Putting the tax implications on the back burner...What is the legal exposure here? 

Do you know what rents would be like if they left - and how quickly/easily you could lease it back up? 

I'm sure once she leaves this weekend back up north I'll get less calls but I do want to make sure she's on top of payments! 

If you focus on those and are willing to take risks (risks are why real estate provide higher returns than the stock market), with the knowledge to back up your decision to take the risk, be ready to pull the trigger.Condos/Townhomes are great for hands off maintenance, but terrible as investments.

I'm paying 8% for hm right now, and I'm not sure  a non-conventional lender would go into a backup position for this type of loan for much less.

I have no information on your area and what rents go for, but I would be careful on being overly optimistic on rent, make sure to back up your numbers with research on Zillow, craigslist, rentometer, etc.

My back up option is to just purchase it with HELOC dollars but then that cash is tied up. 

Property A - listed at $229k and in contract at $225k - solid deal with loan $169,000 and total down payment is $56k ($28k comes from each of our separate 1031 exchange fund)We are both in the loan and title for property A and B per QI instruction.Property B - listed at $275k - missed the opportunity - backup offer at $265k) (almost no chance to purchase it)What happens if we can not purchase property B?

What you don't want to have happen is you get the perfectly-appraised property and then the bottom falls out of the city it's in and the values go into the trash and you can't recover (different than a general real estate crash, because those tanked values will come back up...just don't sell while they are down).All the while, have that steady cash flow in place.