We are interested in acquiring a property that she can live in starting her sophomore year and hopefully have roommates pay for the mortgage.Any tips on the best way to finance this?

To summarize the position I'm taking in this thread (and the impression I have gotten from Tyler's series of posts and also from your original post and response to mine), though the first purchase acquired from Morris Invest may have been imperfect, those experiences are areas for improvement rather than reasons to flush future opportunities down the drain.

With a strong desire to learn, I’m focused on acquiring the skills needed to make strategic investments and build generational wealth through real estate.I’m is eager to dive into the fundamentals of the industry, from property evaluation to cash flow management, and is excited to learn from the experienced mentors and peers.Welcome to the community!

So I’m trying to see if I take that equity off the table and re-invest the sale proceeds in another market across more doors where we’ll see better appreciation, OR if we continue keeping it as a rental and work on principal pay down even though the rental price has been coming down and the home is not the easiest to fill because of the above average price for the C- to B neighborhood.Ultimately, my stated goal has been to build appreciation (over cash flow) by acquiring 1-4 doors per year for the next 10 years to allow my wife to retire (or be work optional) by the time she's 50.

The overall experience was ok, I think the Morris group realized that partnering with new construction groups is a cleaner approach rather than selling dilapidated properties and trusting rehab teams to remediate the property in earnest. 

Quote from @Thu Pham: Hi community, I'm in the process of acquiring my first STR property in Joshua Tree and have met with a co-host that I really liked.

Obviously, the rules will differ from state to state.The most successful buyers have trusted bidders with cashier’s checks in multiple denominations (for cash sales) and the actual buyers have field runners and people to monitor multiple prospective properties at a given time and check sales status for postponements due to BK, etc.This is the case in larger metro markets where many properties could go to sale but few do so.There are often better ways to acquire properties then auctions.

I’ve been doing it for the last 6-7 years and acquired a handful of properties this way. 

Market > Mail > Lead > Analyze > Offer > Acquire > Sell > Rince/Repeat.6.

They filled out the application through apartments.com (used to be Cozy.co before it was acquired) where my screening criteria is posted and the application is hosted, and their annual income listed in the application is 1.25x rent.