I feel it’s better to proactive show potential sellers with this third-party validation to put their mind at ease.

Would you mind sharing how you found the deal? 

For peace of mind, you could do the mortgages, but you also lose that 3-4k for each refi while pulling out only 40-50k, at a time (I think you typically can only pull out 75%, might be less for lower priced properties).

I suspect that we will all be waiting a lifetime to see rates back to were they were 2 to 4 years ago.. so I would not bank on that.. as for pricing.. if its a place to live then you certainly can just wait and see.. its not like your homeless or need to move other than you don't care for your neighbors.. markets always slow about now.. what will be telling in my mind is were we are at next Feb March April in the buying season as it were.I was in a conference this week here in Vegas and some of the speculation is that many of the commercial type loans that had 5 , 7 and 10 year calls  are going to stress those that had max leverage.. as the rates rise the cap rates rise to keep pace thereby devaluing the properties.. to the point some of these investors are going to need to bring some to significant amount of fresh capital to pay down their debt to get a refi.. and that will stress those assets and there could be a real buying opp in that sector.. at least that's what I gleaned from the talk I listened to yesterday... hope you find that dream home in the country !!!

Where my mind would be if I was you, and you haven't commented at all on your life situation is the possibility of a HOUSE HACK with a VALUE ADD opportunity. 

The one thing I would keep in mind is that if you take this deal your investment plans of any other type will likely be ground to a halt for the next 3 years and likely a couple more past that time.

Since I'll be studying in my home town for college, there's no need to househack but it wouldn't mind it.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share some thoughts to keep in mind during our meeting.

But in the end, in my mind I have enough of a reason to say no. 

Make sure you find somebody with like minded financial goals and ambitions.