You could rent a home for under $2,000 and save the extra money.

In most places a mortgage is going to be less than rent-otherwise landlords would lose money.

Reno makes sense from a tax and insurance and economic growth perspective and also proximity to family but it's not a place I've fallen in love with despite spending two weeks there (one week last winter and one week more recently in the summer).

The "failure rate" or "Pass-through rate" is where the loan officer is fighting to get an application to make a paycheck and it taking anything they can get but not putting in the work up front to avoid lost time, lost earnest money, and lost clients for realtors!

Any thoughts on more creative financing other than taking money out of my personal house?

They only sue those who have money.

If the account is growing, we are spending less.  

If you boost leverage to 75% the cash in your pocket is even greater and the returns get boosted again.Now go forward in time a few years and you can do a few things you can never do with a stock:If the property has appreciated, take out another loan and put more money in your pocket.Or, you could sell the property you can use 1031 exchange to buy a much bigger property, reset the depreciation clock and pay no income taxes at that time. 

You are looking for a Hard Money loan.

If so, that would be a good starting out point as $20k can be enough with a hard money loan and a lower value property (although likely challenging in CA).DSCR Loans are an option for turnkey and a refinance - there is no DTI involved in the qualification so salary does not matter