Do I need the original lease or is a digital copy fine?

I think we could all do better to educate tenants to the fact that in today's digital world, they can't get away with this crap anymore.

I'll try to dig it up when I'm back at my PC! 

My goals involve building long-term wealth through buying and holding rental properties, however, my largest barrier to entry is obtaining down payment a such a hot market.Since graduating in 2016, I have been working as a digital marketing consultant and paying $850/mo in rent living with 3 others.

Your Cash on Cash is single digits (you could get that with an ETF) and your cash flow is too low for having your money tied up and taking several years to get a positive annual return. 

Download digital Real estate books.

Despite tight housing inventory, rising interest rates, and affordability challenges, Austin posted double-digit increases in both single-family home sales (up 13.5% YOY) and sales dollar volume (up 19.8% YOY).

That is a 1.5% return on equity.With a little effort you should be able to easily get double digit return on equity. 

I believe with the yield available from purchasing performing notes generally being below our target, and with the risk and pricing too high for most non performing offered, and so many hard money lenders originating in single digit interest rates, that we needed to get creative to invest our money for our portfolio to yield our targeted return, without increasing our risk.

This property is stabilized and producing great cash flow and providing double digit returns.