Why do you think there has been no magic solution for last years?

The last reason to avoid park owned homes, is they only do 1 thing and that's depreciate, unlike stick built homes, the park owned homes are going to rapidly depreciate, so instead of an asset you have a liability. 

I'm looking to purchase 10-15 new-build single family homes (250k-$300k range) as long term holds.

@Sharma Parth City of Flint is losing population, so not a great place to invest:(Detroit on the other hand, has been growing for the last 5-6 years and finally the US Census Bureau recognized that (please Google to verify!).

While we have not yet secured our first property, we have spent the last year+ educating ourselves, networking, driving for dollars, and substantially reducing our debt load.  

Spent all last year in Playa Del Carmen, and met a few investors there. 

We will be looking for an sfr or duplex to buy and hold as a long term rental just to get in on the wave of the rising economy , while it is still affordable.

As long as the appraisal will support it, you can get it refinanced.

Holding long-term Lessons learned?

I’m willing to not make any money off the first deal if the investor is looking to work with me long term.