Whatever you do, I would be tactful in your approach and not necessarily put all your eggs in one basket because it has the largest "potential".

From my understanding, it just seems like saving for a conventional loan to buy a first property feels like the safest path to having better control over how much house (and potentially how much rehab costs) you can afford, vs. taking a risk with long-term debt on an FHA that continually eats up your cash flow with additional PMI payments and etc. 

It's like a chicken and egg sort of scenario...I need the debt service amount to come up with the MAO, but I need the MAO to get the loan amount in order to arrive at the amount to use for the debt service. 

I found a realtor who invests while running a property management business and offering her realtor/PM clients access to her own construction crew.I am concerned that this is putting too many eggs in one basket.

They could tell you they fixed A,B,C and D then you would deduct that from your monthly rent now this eats into your cashflow.

I assume that will more than eat up any rent you collect. 

Pros- inflation on a 1M house raises value far faster than a 100k home in a smaller home even at 3%Your broker commissions on a 1M house will also eat away much of that inflationary gain if you sell off soon.- Small Town: Your experience will all depend on a) quality of property you buy b) quality of tenants c) quality of property manager.

One bad tenant could eat up two years of profit without even trying.If you have $70k in equity, I would seriously consider selling the condo and buy a multi-family that produces a better return.

He finds money to eat food .

I think that whatever someone's title is, you'll get the most insight from someone who is an investor themselves, and is also a well-rounded individual who doesn't only eat and breathe property management.