Some sell a lien against the property and the buyer gets to collect interest, and on rare occasions can foreclose and get the property.

As everyone has said look toward your next PCS as the house hack multi-family utilizing VA.I would warn you that trying to close on multiple properties at the same general time is a nightmare as I have tried this on multiple occasions. 

The hassle just isn't worth it, despite the strong annual appreciation of the properties.We have occasion to use real estate attorneys.

We had discussed investing on multiple occasions, and he shared his story of how/why he bought the house, the challenges with being an OOS owner (he was in military), and future plans.

In fact, why not just seek to invest from the start, leveraging your knowledge to gain access into low or no money deals, and wholesale on occasion when a particular project calls for it?

Like Kevin I am also from around that area and have also driven by that property on numerous occasions.

(That's the second time today I've had occasion to use that analogy).

You can generally use this for most of the major parts of a house, but without walking it you'd find that on paper hardly anything would work out because you'd be so high on your rehab that there'd be no room for profit - and that happens on the walk through on occasion.

It has been construed on multiple occasions that this is a circumvention to inappropriately access gain and exchanges have been denied.I would always counsel that in general (there's always exceptional circumstances that can come into play) you not refi within a year of selling.  

In our experience, he stands out because he treated his work crew right day in and day out; they were all early to work, and worked pretty diligently, cleanly, and respectfully while on site; he himself stayed late on a couple of occasion to make sure the job would be finished on time.