The barrier to entry is much lower, competition is less fierce, and the returns are often higher, especially for buy-and-hold strategies like yours.Since you’re considering investing out of state, I recommend focusing on one or two markets and really diving deep.

We would like our home year three to be FHA as well.Hey Leah, when it comes time to refinance you can as long as you qualify for a conventional loan with a credit score of 620 or higher and have 5% – 25% equity in the home.

It's definitely on the higher side.

For a core deal, I would assume it would be lower, but again, I don't know what they are doing to drive those returns.Relying on markedly lower loan rates is no guaranteeRelying on more core buyers is only likely to happen when pricing (as measured by cap rate) is higher than prevailing interest rates.Unknowns:What is business plan to generate those returns? 

Hard money loans or private lenders can also help you move quickly, but come with higher interest rates that you'd refinance later on.

You also have higher expenses with STR and MTR, you have all the utilities, furnishings, and consumables to account for as well.Combining strategies with house hacking makes it easier to get to cash flow.

Also, pretty much every time someone moves out I put someone else in at a higher rent! 

A Heloc is a open end mortgage like a credit card so its an additional trade line on credit, cannto never be used as an Asset, PITI reserve, and its a DTI killer in most cases.A heloc is also usually set up on a shorter term versus a mortgage, carries a Higher interest rate, and most carry a interest only with a prepayment penalty.

Make sure your credit is also in the 700's or higher to take advantage of better pricing.

We are across the nation, some cities have higher number of bookings via VRBO but more often than not, its Airbnb that has the highest bookings still.