That's not a cheap price and I would imagine one would have to have a pretty decent job even in NJ to qualify, and that it would be a nice area and nice house.

Our 3 options are: A- buy cheap housing in small college town.

In this scenario, it would be foolish to save up 20-25% down on a cheap investment property on a DSCR loan.

The location is not one of the good areas (64130) so it is relatively cheap.

One thing that would be cheap is to see if HCD would take a stance that jurisdiction’s interpretation is incorrect.  

Buy a cheap house in a tough area, the numbers on paper may look good, but you will have higher operating costs and more headaches (generally speaking) as opposed to buying a solid house in a good area.

If nothing else, I think NREIG is willing to insure just about anything, although it won't necessarily be cheap. 

Sam, in my experience the little details like this help vacancy rates and increase the monthly rent. bathroom: Toilets are cheap and are easy to install.

There are limit's to how cheap good get's. 

I invested some in crypto when the hype happened and lost most of it when I had to sell for cheap.