I would advise narrowing down and identify a specific area you want to be in.

Try spreading the strategy out. 

I am sure there  are deals less but when you consider the mid west at 75 to 125 a foot  thats a big spread.. and basically for the same quality houses.

I just renovated a 2 BR / 2 BA single family built in 1900 and it was 55K.Also, there's no such thing as "ARV 200-300K" - you need to conservatively estimate the ARV and come up with a much narrower range.Finally - are you local?  

I have some debt I am paying off quickly (avalanche) and am wondering if I should try to get two loans, one from VA for my house and the other traditional for a rental property spread out over time while I'm paying this debt off, or wait a few years and be much more debt free.

We don't want to be spread to thin at this point.

In my experience, the spread has recently been around 75-100 bps on rate. 

That equity spread out over 2-3 properties would significantly improve your ROI over time.

I've been saying this to some of the "Gurus" out there who are spreading fear. 

Never been a big shot, just average investor spread across different asset classes.