My thinking is I could offer a piece of the new property in return for 15k cash and a strong financial statement however my goal is to have next to no personal rent expenses can anyone give me some ideas?

I have struggled with this myself and have ultimately decided that the returns in Colorado Springs (and even Pueblo West) are strong enough for me to stay in state.

Austin/Texas have very strong markets when compared to many other parts of the country.

Strong fundamentals needed are a given but you can have 2 close to identical companies but one has a really strong marketing machine so stands out as different and enticing.  

With buyers offers falling through a decent amount of time, being able to make a strong subject free offer makes it very attractive to sellers.Costs with a traditional mortgage vs refinance are typically the same.

I haven't ran the numbers, but I can't imagine your ROI or cashflow would be strong at $1,200 rent for a $200K property.

Build on, build high, build strong, and borrow lots of money to do it.

Strongly encourage you to read Brandon Turner's book on rental property investing before getting started.

I'm here in the Wichita Kansas area, just closed my second sfh rental.The Wichita market is really strong! 

@Sandhya Gorman this will strongly depend on if the lender is licensed in the states where the properties are located in.