New construction is very low margin game...

When you are within two years of purchasing make sure to have good tax returns to submit as lenders will want tax returns for last two years.Use the money you have saved and your tax returns to buy a duplex/triplex with an FHA loan and house hack.That would be my game plan in a nutshell.

That'll actually put you ahead of the game.

Eventually, you're out of the game, and blaming it on bad hands.

Its also an active investors game. 

John is right about the enemy method, its the only accurate way to estimate revenue.The blanket estimated revenue amounts on analysis websites like AirDNA can be a decent baseline, but generally include too big a pool of properties to give a very precise estimate.The way I use the enemy method: Sign up for a pricing software that has market analysis (I use PriceLabs but most of the pricing softwares have this feature).

Anything is fair game within that driving radius.

I found my insurance broker, Steadily, through a BP podcast ad, I found Baselane to use for banking through a forums ad, I found RentRedi which I've used as my PM software for years as a sponsored post.

We didn't build some sexy software application in silicon valley.

No experience and no skin in the game will also be an issue with the lender.