It's the EXACT same situation once that tenant moves in, and there's nothing the bank can do, since AFAIK they don't get a say on who I accept as a tenant after I purchase the building.Your right, and that's precisely why an institution doing residential financing will not knowingly go for this scenario.Commercial loans have annual or semi-annual (or every 3 years, etc) checkups on the health of your business.This is one example of why/how vacant residential real estate often sells for more than tenant occupied. 

in NYC some owners are known to rent out their semi basement which is on a grey side. so during inspection would that cause any issue?

Once all the properties are paid off I plan to semi-retire and just use the cash flow as income.I'm not doing this as a hobby or trying to become rich or own hundreds of properties, just looking for a way out of my current career and an end game to get to retirement.  

I have a few clients that do well in the semi rural settings.IE Estacada  over to Molalla, inside PDX metro you will have uber stiff competition and if you don't have cash on the barrel head it can be tough 

I am looking for 4-5 other newbie to semi- noobs who have 5-8k to invest.

These housing finance agencies are semi-governmental non-profits and thus exempt from a lot of the stuff that for profit private sector lenders can do.If your settlement paperwork has conflicting info, the most conservative of what you agreed to is likely what you are bound to.

@Kyle RobertsonIt’s been a year now self employed and it’s been messy, hard, semi-depressing at times, small moments of questioning myself —- done in a pandemic... a lot of crazy highs and lows and emotional roller coasters... some of my greatest single-time paychecks and some stretches with with almost nothing... having a bad@$$ wife helps a ton as she went back to work for a while to support me...

"Semi-retired" and looking to put some cash to work.  

Plus in my area, I can still acquire houses at semi-reasonable prices so I stick to what I know best. 

I will buy 1 or 2 semi loads of shingles at a time if I can swing this, and my profits will pay my deductible on the ones with a $1K deductible each.