You'll want to look at all the fees, on fha there is mortgage insurance.

Biggest advantage is that with conventional you can drop the mortgage insurance monthly payment eventually, whereas with an FHA loan you can never get rid of it.Good luck!

My first investment cost me $6,500 to buy and then $10,000 in repairs in the first three months (I got half of it back from insurance but it took a couple months).

No you do whats called a credit bid.. you already have your money in the deal and your expenses  and tax's if you paid those.. so what ever your owed plus late fee's and interest and foreclosure costs any money paid to senior lender and insurance any property tax etc.. all that is added into your credit bid that your entitled to.. your not entitled to more though. 

I’m thinking of selling life insurance part time to save money or should I just put all my focus on real estate?

Low taxes and insurance.

What are the taxes and insurance?

Treat this the same way you would any other type of new business, whether it be a grocery store, auto repair shop or landscaping business. 

Insurance is all you really need to protect your assets. 

You can knock on the door and claims to be “from the insurance company” or something but more often than not you’re gonna have the door slammed in your face.