Due to the price different between Toronto and SSM, retail buyers are seeing the pricing and they are 'great' deals to them, even though they have climbed this past yearObservation 3:  With material prices up, you would expect new builds to slow down, however in my conversations with GC's and builders they are slammed trying to keep up with the build demand.I would agree with Tyler that there are definitly portions of the city that I would not invest in. 

An alternative I've considered is renting while in CS and buying an area with a lower cost of living in another part of the country, which of course wouldn't allow the VA loan to be used.

So IO for my plans don't materialize, but yes in your examples it does make sense.

I'm not sure how you can get it done for $5k, I don't think that would even cover the cost of materials here. 

if it's still in decent condition, no ripples or waves in it, and depending on what type of material it is ...

Gotcha, happy to connect and send over a few materials that can point you in the right direction. 

Or the alternatives are to receive BSEED tickets, tenants can put rent in escrow, etc.

Alternatively you can hire someone with a broker's license to be your "broker of record" to open your brokerage.

My idea for an alternative is to use Bill Pay and just register the CC payment by transferring from the checking account and writing a "check" from the CC account for all the bills paid in that period.  

The alternative is to add a new LinkedIn profile dedicated to REI.