1-My contributions are tax-deferred2-My agency matches my contributions up to to 5%. 100% of first 3% and then 50% of the remaining 2%3-I can take out a TSP loan to use towards a home purchase and since all my contributions are tax deferred, that amount can be built up faster than putting away taxed income.I don't max out my contribution right now as I like a to make sure that I have a large amount of liquid cash on hand as well.

Just looks like you overpaid and ran out of funds to to do the inside and outside.On a percentage basis the interior renovation might have needed to be pulled back some to allow for proper exterior presentation.Good luck.

I found that the best place to to find them was on home advisor.

Example 2 - We lost our jobs and decided to move back to _____ to be live with family until we get back on our feet.

It's all well and good to pass inspection but that is a very limited assessment and really doesn't tell me much about the quality of your work in toto. 

Then I reach for my nolo.com article, and go over the different seller financing possibilities.See http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/seller-financing-home-sales-30164.htmlAnd I walk them through all the situations in the article, from lease purchase to subject to, to installment sale, to wraparound mortgage."

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/101237-can-i-use-a-sub-to-to-negotiate-short-sale

Yes @linda d      I was able to to rent out two others units over the weekend using the same technique you mentioned above so the wheels are slowly moving again!  

Put some headphones on, or chase the pretty girls around, or do anything you need to; to keep your interest. 

If things go bad its can be much harder than a house hack to show up to to see what is going on and work to fix it.I recommend David Greene's book Long Distance Real Estate Investing.