The initial plan was to do minor cosmetic things and bring the kitchen and bath up to date but not knowing this fact made our $5,000 budget go to $50k costing us the two year full rehab.

Are you looking at turn-key investment or do you plan to purchase and rehab?

If you plan to hold longer than 5 years, I'd reccomend you wait it out.

If we were not able to raise the price of our homes by 20% or more we would had to stop.. my LORI plan started at 600k sold two of them and made our normal 100k net.. last loris I sold 36 months later went for 850 to 900k and we made right at 250k NET on those ones.. so it was very specific to plans that CASH buying empty nesters wanted ..

I definitely plan too  

I would plan to long-term rent the property from day one and would never reside in the property before renting.  

The plan was to house hack the house by setting up the third bedroom as a studio apartment with its own bathroom and walk-in closet.

Run the comps, calculate repair costs, and plan multiple exit strategies so you maximize every deal—whether that’s wholesaling, flipping, or holding for cash flow.

Best thing is to call the housing authority that manages the voucher program in your city/county.

I was planning on having the tenant pay for all utilities.