Unless you come from a corporate job that is involved in this field, it is not a place I recommend to start.

My husband and I both work stable W-2 jobs (he’s in trucking), and our goal is to eventually transition to real estate full-time.

Some lenders specialize in asset-based lending, considering rental income on Schedule E, especially if you have strong rental history.

Anything less than that is way too much work for what you're getting back, because flipping isn't investing it's a job.

Balancing two full-time jobs while planning to invest in real estate shows incredible dedication.

The other issue I ran into is contractor took on other jobs during the day and did renovations at night - didn’t go over well with neighbors.

I suspect you do a good job on the tenant screening side of things. 

Often times, it's the W2 job that creates the lendability that you need to get going and keep going.

I get the 2 schools of thought on keeping cash flow to stay liquid vs. investing your money where it will make the highest return, but my W2 job salary means I don't "need" the 2400/year of cash flow at the moment, really all I am looking to do is maximize this rental return over a 10-15 year return window.  

When someone can’t pay their home mortgage payments it is not likely fraud, just a job loss or business loses.