At the risk of overgeneralizing, I will put them into categories:1 - The close to home folks - For many this purchase is large and perhaps a bit scary. 

While I understand the risks associated with investing in areas unfamiliar to you, my budget forces me to do so.

I would never ever let tenants go alone.. risk of theft and getting your property stripped or worse sqauatter is just far to great.

You could also try to find a seller who wants to do seller financing and take a risk on you, which would be challenging to find.

The terms may be more favorable, if you are just starting out a bank maybe nervous to do 3 at once, therefore their perceived risk will likely be reflected in less favorable terms.     

For certain areas annual pest control may be needed for colder areas maybe you run the risk of freezing pipes.

Building confidence, a plan, and understanding your risk tolerance are all keys to success. 

They financed 100% of that transaction, and I took on a huge loan - a huge risk for a broke guy like me.

Better advice is know the risks, mitigate the risks the best you can. 

The 2-3% points in extra cost are worth it if you plan on using as I described above because the use would be for a few  months at most and due to that short term use you can survive a rate adjustment up.But, if you have no plan to payoff the debt like when using for a down payment on a long term hold why pay the extra cost for flexibility and have the additional risk of the adjustable rate with the amortization looming when you can get a fixed rate second mortgage.