It's always a personal choice everyone has a different perspective.   

You can have multiple conventional mortgages and have a great credit score as long as you don't pay late or get too close to the maximum debt to income ratio.

I could feasibly pursue multiple deals and if I find one in an area I’d like to live once I move back to the US, I would like the option of renting it out while still living abroad but being able to move in and refi to a better deal with an owner-occupier loan.   

To achieve financial freedom, you'll need to scale to a portfolio large enough to spread risks across multiple properties while also generating enough surplus cash flow to cover both personal and property-related expenses.Many experienced investors achieve this by:-Strategically acquiring properties in high-cash-flow markets.

Appreciate you taking the time to outline these thoughts.I have not spoken to local lenders or contractors yet, as I'm still in the preliminary stages of evaluating the opportunity from a numbers perspective. 

If you're tax bill is $6-8k (minus the 1031 fees), surely you can make that up by taking multiple swings over a longer period of time.OR pursue some sort of owner occupied strategy with that cash if you can swing a live in flip or house hack.

I’ve owned multiple mobile home parks and would never try to rent them out for the reason mentioned above.

She lacks the understanding that there are multiple GP partners involved in larger sized deals.

It's best to reach out to multiple lenders to explore your options.

There will be multiple issues unfolding at the same time as there are always something going on!