I decided to not buy more because it became just so competitive.

If you are thinking Texas, the problem is so is everyone else, so your competition is much higher and unless your property is special, you can only compete on price.I hope this helps.

@Ramada Evans- 1) if buying as a rental and  financing it - your down payment will need to be a min of  15% of the  purchase price   ( so thats either  30,750 at 205K price or 32,850 at the 219K price ...so  not much of a down payment  difference   2) if it appears that there isnt much competition  or interest in theproperty - the lower price might be OK   3)  you might also consider   asking the seller for a seller  credit you can use towards some of your loan costs   4) get pre approved  if you arent already pre approved 

We live in fairfax and it is forbidden and can be heavy penalties.

Factors like real estate trends, property taxes, and competition also play a role.

For me local real estate is where I think I have a competitive advantage. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s  a marketing gimmick to get potential borrowers through the door through  weirdly worded non recourse language that is effectively recourse or by offering such terrible leverage borrowers would rather have the recourse and competitive terms. 

@Craig Curelop is a great resource to assist with this as he is in Denver and wrote the book on house hacking for BP.You are a little numbers heavy vs. expectations meaning that it seems like you are really counting on these numbers to work and they could be tight which can be scary for a first property.

Competition- for the same type and price point are there any new locations coming in board.5.  

Essentially, what a lot of these “gurus” do is appeal to an audience that doesn’t want to do the heavy, uncomfortable lifting.