Note if you chose to house hack with VA loan (I would recommend a detached duplex) your price of entry is likely less than investing in many OOS markets (probably all OOS RE that has historical appreciation far in excess of inflation).

Not at market value of course, your goal is to get it way under market value, hopefully in excess of 30% off.

I give excessive noise and failure to cut the grass as examples. 

She made enough to retire on time at retirement age, and has a net worth in excess of a million now in retirement. 

It may be a bit more expensive but probably cheaper in the long run because it eliminates all the excess water getting out of the shower. 

FHA loans only make sense on loan amounts in excess of 2-3 Million dollars due to the high, upfront costs of the loan.Regarding reserves, I want to clarify what Hayden stated above.

The excess funds or profit from the sale shall be split evenly 50% to the Sawala's and 50% to me.All mortgage payments, taxes and insurance payments tendered and or paid by me or my company shall be reimbursed from the Sawala's 50% share of the profit to me or my company at the time of closing the sale of the property to the end buyer.

4-5K seems excessive. 

Darrell Essex,This is a topic that has been talked about excessively here and depends upon your personal situation.It typically is a bit best to get a couple deals handled to build up a bankroll unless you already have some funds.At some point if profits are enough you will want to consider an S-corp or a C-Corp to shelter profits from too much tax.By the way if you're ever in Lake County or in the Northbrook area let me know.Sincerely,Steven the Tax GuyYour guide to IRS laws, rules and regulations.

If each of those individual payments going out could be invested to yield in excess of the delta Jon describes then you should take the latter loan.Other things to consider are the risk associated with having to make payments each month, the impact on your ability to borrow more money, the inflation rate, etc.