This advice definitely helps with my rationality because I seem to already want to be back in Idaho.

If your income, credit score, debt vs income ration is sufficient they will not have any issues lending to you.  

The rational half of me knows it's probably best to not even consider trying to buy for the first time in such a short window, buy my excitable half doesn't like the idea of waiting so long.

Sounds like you want a rationalization to buy it.

(That's how I rationalize all the scrutiny, anyway :)As @Frank Geiger said, there's a pretty big gap between 100K and 10K.

It is amazing to me how common this is and how people rationalize it.

Scott's list of times when the bankers become rational......

Don't include water and you may find that some tenants may mess with the auto sprinklers to save on utility cost ... again, they are not always 100% rational and would sometimes rather live with a dead lawn to save a few bucks a month on water.

That's just a rationalization for a bad deal...and rationalization is the most expensive word in the dictionary.Hey, if it was OK to have negative CF because it was a great learning experience, I want to meet the REI that lost the most, and had the greatest negative CF. 

On the other hand, if you have an obstinant interloper-in-possession with a "living better through chemistry" issue, rational thinking will be for naught.