There's a few different ways to focus on a lower rate such as with house hacking and making the investment your primary residence, requesting a significant closing credit from the sellers for standard rate buy-downs (which I've had great success with recently), or utilizing lenders who offer short term rate lowering solutions such as 2-1 rate buy downs (again, ideally paid for by the sellers).

What I am trying to better understand is at what pointy that restaurant owner able to either delegate or reposition so he / she doesn’t have to the restaurant every day. do they need to obtain more restaurants or keep offering more to their current customers?

I can only speak regarding structuring the deal as I have not utilized partners personally but it really can be anything that you want.

Also, be sure to check with the section 8 agency managing the tenants - sometimes if you pass on an additional cost like that they will no longer be eligible to live there if the rent and utilities exceed what they were approved for.

.$8,981 mortgage at 7%$2,918 expenses monthly 33.38% of Gross rental income (Prop mgt, maintenance reserve, utilities, Prop Taxes, Insurance, other)$6,852 NOI/monthly ($2,129) negative monthly cash flow..Same scenario with 50% down, $864 positive monthly cash flowNot saying it's the best use of capital or the only way to do it, instead providing an example using an available market opportunity to share what the numbers look like. 

Utilizing the VA loan is a good first step in terms of investing.

Plus the challenge with mid term is you are generally on the hook for things like internet, utilities, etc.

There is the Experian Boost that adds monthly utility bills as credit and various apps and facebook groups.

That's three months of mortgage and utilities, the cost of flooring, and the cost of painting.

My goal, over the next five years, is to utilize real estate in lieu of my current hourly consulting income, by building a portfolio of rentals.