I have lumber liquidators, home Depot, Lowe's, and who knows what else near me (central CT).

We also live in a reasonably low cost of living area compared to the rest of the nation where the home prices we are looking at for rentals are between $200K and $250K. 

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I figured, if I hire several low skill employees it would equal one high skilled employee.

At the risk of taking flak here, I'm going to say I've seen a lot of super cute stock tank pools that are low-cost options. 

This seems unrealistically low for a 40 unit property.

One golden rule I follow,if it takes a long time to fix/replace when it breaks, don't buy a cheap one.Imagine, this thing breaks in the middle of your peak season and the people who can come out to rebuild are 2 weeks out....It takes at least a day or two to build something like this even if you are super skilled.

Not every STR has to be a 4 Seasons and even those I've waited on service before and it's not like someone was breathing down their neck waiting to revoke their hotel license when it happened. 

Season tickets to UT football? 

There are quite a number of things that can make utilizing an FHA loan more difficult such as more barriers during appraisal, appearance of low qualification/little cash, typically longer closing period, likely higher interest rate, and PMI cannot be dropped without a refinance if 3.5% down.That said, just chain 5% down conventional loans, and make sure your duplexes pay for themselves.