Commit 10 hours a week, initially, to real estate.

If the property is homesteaded, you are grandfathered only at max 3%.You can see bellow an example as the taxes increased after the change om ownership. the big difference is due to fact the area appreciated 1000% since the 90s when the house was initially purchased as a homestead.

I'm still learning a lot about this and our initial thoughts were to find a place with tenants.

I would recommend focusing on local markets initially before expanding to out-of-state opportunities but if investing locally isn't a possibility, consider checking out Columbus OH. 

depends on the market. in hot markets if you dont Proof up with your initial offer your not getting into contract in the first place.I suppose this thought process works with unsophisticated un represented sellers. 

However, I’m still unsure if I should keep the initial estimate from the contractor even though we are minimizing labor and cost of materials. 

We initially tried splitting utilities among tenants, but it proved too complicated.

The additional amount in yr 1 was to help decrease the initial downpayment-Tenant responsible for all maintenance (but I did purchase them a home warranty to use)

Also make sure your contract allows for obtaining financing after the initial seller financing term.

While buying someone else's position at a potential discount is great, I would rank this endeavor as a magnitude of difference harder than making an initial investment.