My impression is that Fannie will routinely amend a purchase price if the appraisal comes up short less than 10 percent of the original purchase agreement.

WEll when you live in one of the most desirable places in the world with incredible weather and job opps of the high paying type.. that's what happens  :)  no matter what the price lenders in this environment will want whats called skin in the game , the days of 100% loans based on ARV are long gone.. ( unless your a very established repeat client  Like my guys I do this routinely for my clients but they have been with me more than a decade and in many cases we are well over 200 transactions together)So starting out as you are ... a HML will want at least in all the deals in the SF BA I have been presented with ,, they want 20% and sometimes will want you to also fund the rehab out of pocket.So take a 1 mil purchase and 400k rehab  ( pretty common numbers) and an ARV of 2 million ( again pretty common numbers..

You can easily get most of the top books for $15 in that first month.I now have a morning routine of listening to an hour podcast from BP or audio book over my morning tea.

I have a fair understanding of home mechanics (plumbing, electrical, etc) but I  contract these tasks out almost always.Looking for connections for our next purchase (later this Fall) as well as fair contractor services (general needs in regards to routine / urgent repairs .

It is an uncomfortable feeling for someone who hasn't done this before.  

If you feel uncomfortable there, then you have your answer.I think the economy is definitely slowing down a bit, but I do not believe that it will completely turn around within  the next years.

I could imagine it being a little uncomfortable sitting across from a seller at closing with them finding out their end buyer is actually paying $5K more than they're getting and that money is going to me!

In many markets, the ideal house hack is getting harder and harder to find but I always found this to be true after selling many househack properties to clients and buying them myself:The more uncomfortable you are willing to get, the more money you can make in terms of cash flow.Below are the different ways to make a househack work nowadays in my market and many others from most likely to cash flow to least likely to cash flow. 

I will incorporate these into my routine to ensure success of my company.

., making me uncomfortable when it comes to working on something so time-sensitive as a rehab.