Because one of my first questions dealt with the job’s complexity, to which I asked the loan officer to review with underwriting if this would be a problem.

Without knowing any of your financial position of your work or side hustles it is hard to give you exact advice because you may be able to carry these homes until they are paid off and in that case they would provide solid returns, but there are likely better real estate investments out there.  

You are telling the tenant in advance that they can break their lease at any time and get paid to do it.

Paid-in-full real estate almost always results in sub-optimal returns.Do this math. 

this is the distinct different between being an actual lender like a bank .. and an investor in a fund.. two very separate transactions.. when you lend and receive collateral on the asset you get paid when it pays off or the borrower refinances etc. 

Has good job at a local factory & recently started school to become a welder. 

Any other fees such as close out fees or payoff demands are paid out on the back end when your loan is refinanced or paid off.

Maybe start with some smaller jobs before going all in.

In Columbus, you can still find the 1% rule and there's amazing appreciation potential due to how much population growth, job growth, and companies moving/developing there (recently Anduril just announced another 4,000 jobs coming to Columbus Ohio on top of Intel, Google, Amazon, FB, Nationwide, Ohio State University, etc.).

I paid the first $5K but started having second thoughts because of high vacancy rates in the area.