just don't do a lease. as others have mentioned, this forces the buyer of the property to take over the lease (if its even allowed/ they qualify) and it certainly does make the property a little tougher to sell. i'm also doing a house hack, and here in CA, its made a world of difference for me. the bulk of our energy usage is in the summer when we want to run the a/c. my bill stays a constant $228/mo (i pocketed the tax credit and simply financed the panels after that grace period). instead of getting an $800 bill in the summer months, we run the a/c at a constant temperature 24/7 on auto, stay comfortable, and i typically get a little bit coming back at the end of the year. don't expect to pocket this "little bit back" by being conservative with your useage, it sort of is a use-it-or-lose-it situation... i think i got $54 back this year.

You control the situations and learn.  

This market is not always available in the MLS, so making it more difficult.A commercial lending is possible even with SFH, that will depend on your lender and the access to commercial programs, it will all depend on the situation.  

This is the perfect situation for this.A third question would be, "is this his only property, and if not, are the other properties also paid off?". 

My most recent look indicated that the DSCR rate was actually lower than the one at my bank but would have required a 35% down payment in my particular situation.

Given your situation (demanding job, young family, special needs child), I would suggest doing the SFH route for your first investment, especially if it's OOS.

I appreciate the feed back from everyone, as financing can get a bit tricky, not to mention complicated sometimes trying to look at all the different ways to calculate how financing can or cannot me more beneficial than your current situation.  

My tenant ultimately rehomed their cats (which had been indoor/outdoor despite my policy that all cats are strictly indoor) because they found them to be too much responsibility for their current situation which made me sad.

After reading Brian Burke's post about his apartment syndication deal that went terribly wrong, I understand even very successful people can face some pretty challenging situation.

We have made the decision to list the place for rent and then simply communicate the situation with the tenant.