@Joshua Delzell, did you ever end up finding a solution to this?

My solution: Get into a property admin/management/assistant position adjacent to experienced people I can learn from.

Pick a solution in line with the unit type. 

You step in and offer them a creative finance solution that looks like this: (these are real numbers btw):Seller asking: $275,000 for 3/2 Single family split level, 1400 Sqft, with bonus room in basementYour Seller Finance terms as follows:Down payment: $20,000 cashSeller carry back financing amount: $255,000Terms: 5 or 7 year note with balloon @ 2.75% (or any negotiated terms here)Principal & interest: $867.61 per month (wow!) 

I offer homeowners a contingency plan best on their family needs and their times it is not in their best interest or best solution where they may need either sell their home to an investor for a discount or in market value.

Easy solution: get licensed.

Home insurance won't cover a lot of system failures like electrical.Home warranties are designed to make the warranty provider money; they are slow to respond, quick to reject claims, charge you a trip fee for every visit, use the lowest-cost vendors that provide quick-fix solutions, and are generally not worth the paper they are written on.

@Lucas Carl, Getting a vacation rental with 25% down and having a property manager is sustainable and allows you to compare apples to apples across different areas around the nation. 

The only options that seem available to us are add the parents to our application, remove either parents or wife from the duplex, or in the future put the rents all in my wife's name which might negatively affect my in-laws.You guys are my Hail Mary, hoping you can spot a solution I'm missing!

Why I Believe Striving to Build Passive Income is OverratedThis may seem like a disingenuous statement coming from a passive income guy, BUT, I believe that those looking to build sustainable look term wealth would be better off to downplay passive income.Passive income has a role, a large role, but one best utilized when a certain level of wealth has been achieved, and the holder of said wealth is looking to preserve capital and live off the income generated by passive investments.I hear many relatively new real estate investors say that their goal is to acquire enough real property to replace their earned (W-2 or 1099 or Sch C) income with the income be generated by their investments.