I also like sleeping at night knowing that i have little to no debt and i do not wish to leverage my shirt off to get a ton more.

The debt payment difference would amount to $850 and you are correct your closing costs would likely exceed that.

I don’t have any debt – no student loans, no car loans, no credit card balances, etc. but I don’t exactly have a huge net worth either.Right now, my plan is to continue learning as much as possible and connect with other people in my area.

This may mean you have to take on the debt personally or may mean you have to pursue hard money loans.

If you fail to purchase you will still owe the amounts under the note as you received the option and it becomes a debt for the rights you received.

They have revolving debt of $26k and it shows they have paid on time approximately $560 per month.

Obviously if they pursue a deficiency they can't collect if you are below certain federal income guidelines.You can always file chapter 7 if you pass the means test and blow out all the bad debt except for some IRS taxes,some student debt,and back child support.No legal advice

Especially since your debt is at 5% (cheap).

Furthermore, I am not necessarily looking for cash flow in the short-term (apart from, of course, having adequate cash flow to cover debt service/ property management/ repairs/ vacancy, etc, etc).

DTI is all debt payments, including the new mortgage, any existing ones, and all other debts that have more than six (?)