I tend to admonish about automatically doing 1031 exchanges. 

Property aimed to be paid off in 20 years to pay for kids college/marriage/car etc etc etc)Does anyone have any pros/cons of the above?

Do they have a car??? 

These tenants rented a two bedroom and one bathroom and as a bonus I gave them also this small garage storage (too small to fit a car). 

I had moved more than 50 miles because of work and my FHA loan had a clause where I was automatically approved to buy a house with 3% down in that scenario.

Look at your expenses- if you have a car payment, credit card payment, etc, get rid of those.

Purchase price: $220,000 Cash invested: $55,000 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage, and nearly 10 sq. ft. lot.

I can get a VA loan but again my debt to income with being on this house with my girlfriend and new car is making it hard for banks.

I should not have to show them this.We had maximum lottery entries meaning that we could show the STR was operating legally (occupancy dates, rates, taxes paid, etc) at least 5 years (ours was operational 23 years) and had no significant complaints lodged against the unit (not sure if they had such records so I suspect everyone automatically met this criteria). 

I see it as no different from using a lawyer with a car accident.