This helps alleviate some of my fears and provides really good next steps for us - I so, so appreciate that. 

Really helps to alleviate much of the anxiety when starting out.

Perhaps forming a partnership with the right person can help alleviate some of those nerves and eliminate some of your risk. 

This alleviates some of the potential risk you face with the tenants not paying on time. 

The primary reason being that we'd do an FHA loan and also that it would alleviate the need to sell the following year when we look to purchase our "forever" home.

Dealers who have as of now purchased another house will have alleviation from paying two home loans without a moment's delay, and in a moderate housing business sector with numerous homes available to be purchased, this may be their best choice.

They want to call us all out and 'step up' without alleviating or even addressing the underlying issues that made these programs essentially obsolete in this market.

This way you make the right deal on the purchase side and alleviate some of the risk factor assuming you crunch your numbers and account for your overhead correctly.

If he is a seasoned REI he may be more willing to entertain seller financing but you have to understand what his concerns would be and how you could alleviate them.  

Take advantage of Credit card deals(interest free, airline miles, etc..) as it would help alleviate some financial stress if you run into problems.