I have a wife and 3 kids and the weight of their futures on my back.

So you have to weight risk to reward.. and sometimes we have to eat one that we bought it happens..

Once you've identified what's important and what ratios to look for to evaluate a property, all future deals should be weighted against those "good" ratios/numbers - and periodically adjust to suit your goals.

In addition to a voucher, we require that the tenant be able to show income at least 1.5 time the monthly rent, as opposed to our regular tenants who must show 3.5 time monthly rent.

My budget is in the $200-250K range.Please feel free to let me know if additional details would help, and thank you in advance for your time and advice! 

In addition I am giving him freedom to explore (to a certain extent) on my dime.

An additional benefit of a detailed engineering-based Cost Segregation Study is that it can increase potential insurance premium savings as well as provide support for the property tax appeals process.

In addition to your down payment, plan for closing costs (around 2-5% of the purchase price) and set aside at least 3-6 months of expenses for repairs, maintenance, and vacancies.

You can prevent this by requiring them to add you as "additional interest" on their policy.

Here's the deal: You don't need to withdraw and return the current security deposit just to collect the additional $100.