I’d say a save MINIMUM would be if you could earn that 5% return with 8 months of rent it’s better than the bank.

We fee like a conservative approach will let us go through the growing pains of better understanding real estate investing without the worry of being over leveraged to add to the stress while we are both still employed full time in our careers and do not plan on quitting our jobs to go fully into real estate. 

I'm 37 and about 8 years into my emergency medicine career.

I've dealt with S8 housing my entire career as a Landlord and have a few answers for you.

New Career?

You’d earn 0% on your $275k. 

The policy consideration behind the higher leveraged loans is to provide financing for individuals who have high earning potential and are at the start of their career where the earning potential has not yet materialized and perhaps are dealing with the added burden of student loans.

Only thing the Income Statement info would be the retained earnings on the Balance Sheet.

You can rent out a vaction home so it can be used to earn some cash and offset the mortgage for the frst year. 

It may interest you.Best wishesI excluded duplexes because at least in the SF Bay Area, SFR earn a premium on sale over Duplexes, and duplexes get higher price/sq ft over 3-4 units.