The main differences (besides rates/underwriting guidelines) is what you can include in your renovation costs.

Maintain - includes taxes and insurance?

Would be curios if folks have also just included the cost of utilities at this price and left it unpermitted.

I live in a VHCOL area in Colorado in the mountains (~3.5 Hours from Denver) and single/multifamily homes in this area are extremely expensive.Things I am currently considering to get started include house hacking, STR, and real estate syndications.

A) The $40K cash on hand was not including my emergency fund and merely represented what I wanted to stick to as a low ~10% DP or to be used for a small refresh/reno. 

CA, in total continues to lose 100k's of population and continues to add onerous legislation, including the state rent cap they passed a few years ago (doesn't apply to sfr's though).I am not sure why anyone would want to jump in the deep shark infested waters right before feeding time, unless you have a clear proven strategy, or a very long time horizon.

-Interest rate of 5% is much lower than market interest rates. 7-8%+-There are no capex reserve considerations included. 5% is a starting point.

@Brandon Stelling As a military veteran with 100% VA disability benefits, you can leverage VA home loans to purchase properties with no down payment, no PMI, and favorable terms, including multi-family properties for house hacking. 

I'm glad to be included on this platform with like minded interests.

In Philadelphia area there are several REIAs including Diversified Investors Group (DIG), Delco Property Investors (DPI), and South Jersey REIA (SJREIAA) just to name a few.