Focus and consistency are going to be your best friends.Also, I wouldn't tackle buy-and-holds right now unless you currently have a high cash flow revenue stream in place.

After two years your only profit will be the education you gained. 

I dunno @Mike Francis, this has come up before and I still think that you aren't going to get a ton of traffic from being on there.

I think you would be wise to sell and use the VA loan for your new home. 

They have always returned principal when requested in the past, as well. 

You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!

This way, you’ll get a clearer picture of what needs to be done, the estimated costs, and whether the numbers align with your investment goals.

I currently broker LIHTC multi-family for a large firm coast to coast and am also interested in MF in the Arizona submarkets as well, and will eventually invest on that scale - I just figure breaking into the state through SFH flips may be a more risk adverse way to understand the pros and cons to phoenix submarkets.

Once you complete and rent/stabilize, you should easily be able to get into a DSCR loan.

I tend to be a bit more flexible on credit score (minimum is 600), but it's dependent on the property/area.