But you do have the room sharing.. in Cupertino were you have a huge Asian population I know folks that will put two computer kids in each room for 4 bed house 8 techies and each paying 1k to 1500 a month.. can just about make it work since the houses are 2 mil. 

Especially as you two plan to start your lives together, you’ll likely want that extra privacy.

I know it seems like a tough task, but can you spend a few more months or a year while you continue to learn to really tighten the budget or find ways to earn a little extra to start from a stronger position?

I've learned a more from people like Jay, Henry, James, Nathan, Chris, Alan, Joe, Carlos wherever that guy is, than folks you would think have the "credentials" to give me advice. 

PS before the hedge funds jumped in about 2011 to 2012 I was an activce courthouse buyer in Henry county and a few of the counties on the north side of Atl metro so been to many of the  auctions having them all on one day is a cluster .. you have multiple criers crying sales simultainously it can be hard to follow but you can also squeeze out one that folks missed.. we did quite well until the hedge funds knocked us little guys out of the area..

Where do folks find MTR?

I'd hate for a temporary dip in the quality of the tenant pool to be giving my landlord "spidey sense" false alarms on account of taking an extra month or two to fill a unit.

Look, I have no idea who Eric is, what type of person he is but I will say after a quick search I saw that he did in fact sell his company for MAJOR $$$ and that he is active in Section 8, no idea if his course is good or garbage but still felt the urge to respond because I am so tired of hearing SCAMMER, find it online to EVERY SINGLE post asking about any course. anyone who actually sells their business and nets 110 mil is NOT going to dive into Section 8 or any real estate for that matter other than fine personal residences etc.. they retire and spend it.. so I dont think so.Plus section 8 is simply not complicated its run by the Sec 8 folks in each city.. nothing magical about that.. its a tough way to go being a section 8 landlord lots of drama.

other than the constant warnings and warning posts I dont think you can expect BP to be the gate keeper for Guru class's  keep in mind some folks do succeed and the cost of a guru package to them was one of the best things they ever did. 

From what I can tell, the extra equity on the house could be utilized to provide better ROI.