However, I realize if we close it will be around winter and we may have vacancy throughout winter.would it be best to wait and ride out our lease or at least get closer to the end of May to avoid too much overlap or should we try to get out of our lease and buy now before rates are back up to 4-5% (which I’m realizing makes it tough to cash flow)also, how do you handle this situation as a landlord?

Starting with nothing is tough.

@Javaras ThomasIt’s very tough in every market.

It's tough to find places under $300-400K on the MLS, but they're out there. 

I'd get notices from the city about the lawn not being mowed, or it would take weeks for them to get back to me. 4) Quality - This is a tough one.

We hired our first employee and continue to improve our processes daily.

So that's unfortunately the mind set of many wholesalers they say they care but they dont if they cant close they walk  tough cookies for the seller  we will just robo call the next 1000 people.   

I'm a contractor with one other full-time employee. 

My plan is to focus on cash flow since the plan is to replace my W2 and Texas r/e taxes are high so tough on the cash flow but amazing on equity.   

But seriously, like @Scott Swanson said, any OOS investing has risks (heck for that matter something next door to you will too, but you know that), but having good contacts helps mitigate the risk.  3) Under $100K...that's tough, you'll probably have to go outside of the major metros.