Might be worth seeing how flexible the price is.Cypress has a newer Duplex/4plex community...the numbers won't work as a traditional rental but might make sense as a house hack.If you look further out...there's a new construction neighborhood in Sealy (Westward Pointe) with lots of incentives that I've sold a few homes in...the appraisals mostly have come in much higher than the purchase prices.

If you're able to purchase a multifamily close to the school it opens up the possibilities of using the units for traditional long-term rent, renting to students or AirBnB. 

Abby,Talk to a local, traditional mortgage broker. 

We follow the traditional standard CA real estate rental form - nothing fancy.

What I would really concentrate on is analyzing the deal as a traditional long term rental without you living in the property in 1-2 years.

You cannot however do traditional 1 year leases using a second home loan. 

You can't follow traditional metrics of tenant-friendly or landlord-friendly and think that will save you.

I understand the title insurance fee itself may be set by the state.It means that I am familiar with the nuances and requirements of investor-type deals that are not present in "traditional" retail deals.

So in fact he is doing WAY MORE than any traditional agent or broker (myself included) is doing in ways of transparency, disclosure and notice.

All of those activities wouldn't be in a "traditional" Customer Relationship Management tool anyway.