Also, since the housing crunch my bank no longer caps rates like they used to.

Because of the time crunch, it sounds like that could be playing with fire and if you've "shopped," it might be best to take the terms, but look to get out of them as soon as you can.  

I want to purchase a property within 6-8 months of finishing my loan payments and ideally I would use this year to continue learning and crunching numbers on properties that I find for practice, but have no idea what my budget should be because I have no idea what loan amount I might get approved for...I would like to do FHA for the 3.5% down and looking at qualifications I should be able to qualify, but I feel like until I actually sit down and see what exactly I can get approved for, there is a huge gap in my planning...

Relocation Assistance (California Law):  "https://www.flgch.com/blog/wha...Due to the housing crunch in your state (we have it here too), Landlords with "no fault tenants" can be left with paying one month's rent to the departing tenant for relocation.  2. 

I have been looking to purchase a rental property for quite some time now and might have found one that is reasonable, after all the numbers are crunched the property I found, which is a triplex, in a reasonable neighbourhood and in good condition would cash flow between 200-400 per month, while I thought this was low I also came up with a 17% return on the property if I were to hold it for 5-7 years, what other figures should I be looking at in purchasing my first rental property?

My worry is the time crunch at the end of our lease, so I would rent a place where I can go month to month at end, or get a 6 month and go month to month then. 

But he can't compete with us on quality/warranty/service or he would be making alot more than 25.00/hr.I get it in the industry it's important to crunch and save, but as I do in my contracting I do in my real estate.  

What would crunching the numbers look like, with a fee of 10k for assigning that towards someone else? 

(there is no HVAC)The home has had all plumbing redone and is turn key ready. however I want to update it but do not really know how to crunch the numbers quite yet.

My second property I did the same thing, but shortly after kicked myself after doing some more number crunching.