Especially as the housing market is starting to soften. 

If you want to move, I would refinance your current home while it's your principal residence to take the pressure off (you can still make the same payment you make now but know if rents soften or you have a major expense, you can lower your payment to just what is required.  

Yes, interest rates MAY go up (or they may not in the next couple years, no guarantee), but the type of correction in pricing that you seek are usually coupled with a softening economy and the powers that be don't normally respond to a softening economy by raising interest rates.

Depending on how soon the approval comes back I am in debate as to whether this deal has a big enough profit margin to sustain any softening of the market between now and the time I get lender approval, complete rehab, and close on the selling side.

Longer term, one has to like the notion that the 50 billion permanent fund may be the stabilizing force, with some sort of use of excess earnings or endowment formula to put a backstop in price drops......I see a few local condo prices lowering and days on market look longer here (all anecdotal) but your fourplex may depend on the local rental market, and if that softens, maybe you can find  a deal in the next couple of years and with a ten year plus time line and positive cash flow it may work well if you can hold through the low oil price cycle...best of luck

Also, the fact that vacation rentals are something that people would not rent nearly as much as the economy softens which will happen over time.

They had no water softener, and very hard water had eroded the thin copper pipes from the inside out causing spontaneous leaks all over the place.

There are higher cap rates to be had, especially in this softening market, you just gotta ferret out the deals. 

You're getting in at the best time, not the worst time.If you got into your first deal 8-10 months ago, that would have been bad.Nowadays inventory is up, prices are down, and most people are forecasting prices to continue to soften as the fed keeps pushing rates up.Spend the next 6 months getting educated.

If we see a sharp increase in inventory this will be a good forward looking indicator that prices may start to soften.