I want to avoid any issues come tax time.

I have told myself I have 3 years until I have to really look at getting into the working sector and want to avoid this as much as possible.

I've also seen several other folks on here talk about low-down payment conventional loans as alternatives to avoid the PMI.

Since we didn’t buy until mid October last year, we want to avoid the seasonal market slow down and a possible overall market slow down too by selling before August.

In addition, many landlords avoid conversations with their tenants. 

Now the idea is to avoid getting a jumbo a loan because of the higher down payment, so my price range is under 680,000$.

IMO they're both big enough to give you a lot that is nice about living in a decent sized city, but avoid many of the annoyances of being in a proper big city.

How do I avoid having to wait?

I know that if I deal directly with him, I can avoid the buyers agent fee.

I buy and sell properties more often than most investors.....but it ends up being for a few reasons.  1) I get bored with some properties, 2) by buying different types of assets, it lends credibility to my business as an agent to sell those other kinds of assets, and 3) to avoid upcoming large capex costs.However, I actually believe a better wealth building strategy for most people is to simply continue to hold onto most of their real estate assets.