Also Condos are dealing with high special assessments.

Kudos to you for doing something to create a secondary income stream. there are 5 income streams in RE rentals, possibly six if you do things a certain way.The reality here is your model (buy box) is suffering from too high an entry and too high a cost of capital.

Purchased a little too high at the buy (I knew it at the time too), does a little better than breaking even on cashflow, and took too long to rehab.

Hi everyone,I am currently a high school senior turning 18 in a month.

If you are looking at FHA because of credit score, then I would work on credit scores to qualify for conventional financing or see if you can get a very strong coborrower with high scores.  

I am a highly motivated individual, however, and I'm dedicated to getting into real estate investing.  

It takes more effort and there's more risk involved (therefor more reward), but it just depends on your goals and how you want to get there.As far as focusing on areas with high demand for travel nurses, that's just 1 tenant-type of many in a changing landscape.

Creative financing can help sellers make more money, solve pain points, gets them the money they need, and help them avoid a high tax bill.

That way, there is some type of cushion to help against any high usage months, should they just happen to use more than your previous tenants did, or if you unfortunately get tenants who abuse the "utilities included" opportunity. 

My answer would certainly be highly dependent on his own emotional make up, his desire to relax and travel, his willingness to delegate and outsource, etc.