Once it's rented, use that rental income to help offset your DTI, which may help you qualify for the second property sooner.Partner with Investors: Team up with someone to split costs and lower your personal DTI impact.

Personally, I started my investment journey with multifamily properties before moving into single-family homes.

I would still focus heavy on stocks/index funds.

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

Not a lot of our competitors offer this but it's something we can consider (but for us, it can't be in a rural area, the loan amount must exceed $150k, if we're using PadSplit income (or STR/MTR income) the max LTV is 75% and the down payment must come from your own funds). 

For me personally, our STR and our little inn provide more than half my family's income so I feel I have a fiduciary duty to my wife and kids to maximize that. 

I purchase my personal investments to maximize their equity and hold long term.

Are you interested in S8 because of a personal reason or you think it's the next "hot" investment idea?

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

Other than paying for an appraisal or BPO (and maybe a credit report), you should not pay a lender anything until your loan funds.