I bet it looks very amateurish.

I bet they wait until January or February so they don’t have to pay the tax on those gains for another year (which is why we may be seeing less selling this month than in a normal cycle).

@Devin James My bet is on that they close. 

If your goal is to offset your mortgage with a house hack then Lowell would be a good bet, but if you're looking for a longer term appreciation play then the areas closer to the city would be better, although the offset from cashflow may be lower than what you're looking for.A good step for you would be to dig into specific areas more as @Lien Vuong noted above.

To me, if you aren't at least maintaining 0 cash flow, you're betting too much on appreciation to the investment work. 

@Shawn Tuma & @Chris KayVery difficult in today's market to cashflow putting 0% down:(5-10 years ago it was possible, but prices have increased faster than rents.Your best bet is to find a property that needs work, but will still pass a VA appraisal/inspection. 

You bet.

If you kept the property, and accumulated the CF/yr, it would take you 25 years to get that same equity that's sitting, frozen in your property.Also, if you cashed out and used that same equity as a DP on different RE, at 20% DP, that equity would buy you $2M in PV, not just $700k,...and, I'd be willing to bet, you could find new RE that would have a yearly CF well over $20k/year.On top of that (remembering my initial statement above), any appreciation applied would be applied to $2M, not just $700k. 

I basically just told them when they moved in that any drama that may arise from them sharing the house is between them and has nothing to do with me (as long as the house/people aren't being physically harmed).If you do end up renting to veterans I think your best bet to ensure everyone gets along is to just make one lease for all 4 bedrooms.

Best bet is likely (not absolute - everyone's situation is different) is to look at a national lender or broker that has options in lots of states - its a great development versus 20 odd years ago, with technology, internet, places like this - can have access to many more options than before (local broker or lender thats it)