The great thing about buying SFR for a cash flow rental property for the long term is even if values drop in the short term because of a down economy rent prices increase because no one wants to purchase housing when home values are falling.You just need to be a little careful in the area that you are trying to invest.

When you purchase with an FHA loan and a 3.5% down payment you will need to pay PMI until your equity increases another 16.5%.  

What are you seeing in Pueblo, values increasing?

This would increase the overall raise amount, address our challenges of raising capital per project and the returns would be shares of all the projects.

How do you best utilize all the resources (networking, podcasts, resources) that BP has to offer on this site to increase your net work while decreasing the time it takes you to achieve your goals?

You can offer to move them into the newly renovated unit at the increased price and with a standard lease.OR you can tell them that the rent is going up $50 every 6 months until it hits market and that you will be requiring a standard lease going forward. 

I do not plan on limiting myself to residential only, but plan on increasing my portfolio to commercial in the future; trying to ‘think big’ now and plan backwards.

As @Jay Hinrichs stated, the timber situation may have me in over my head as a rookie investor but it's never too early to have a few alternate strategies in my back pocket as my proficiency increases :) @Matt Katsaris, thanks for the heads up.

The goal is to live in our first home for 3-5 years, ride the increase in home values in Philadelphia, and then move to the suburbs. 

If you can purchase  a multi unit residence with an occupancy rate of 75% or less (as an example) and reposition the property by removing problem tenants and replacing them with quality tenants,  upgrading the property strategically, increase the occupancy rate to 95% and increase the rents to fair market value or better, then you have a gold mine!