I am in zero danger of losing the home I own, and am actively working to get ready to buy my first rental as soon as possible. 

Locked up my first deal under contract virtually for a property in Ohio, very excited and stressed about finding a buyer!

If not, I would ask yourself what kind of investor you want to be, (active, passive etc) and where exactly in the Midwest you would want to invest and the people out there you want to start networking with / building a team. 

Your reserves do seem a little light and may cause undue stress.

Btw, in roughly half of my deals I am representing the buyer and my buyers get the properties they want, so I know my representing them is not working against them.Lastly, if you're active on BP and the forums then you very likely know more about REI then most residential real estate agents (who mainly deal with retail clients).

Does a person renting vacation rentals as a property manager in florida required to have a license?  Are they responsible for paying the taxes for the short term rentals.  What if this person is advertising a business...

I have 0 experience in these smaller markets but definitely will be interesting to see why they have stayed so darn cheap in relation to the bigger one and how would they behave from a cash flow perspective in a “stress” situation.

Buying a $5,000 house maybe tempting but it can be more stressful.

I recently completed one in this area that I'm not readying for publication, and the book on financial independence will hopefully be book 2.I do have some specific questions that I'm eager to interview active members on, but I will put them into separate posts.Thank you all for the high level of contribution and discussion available on this forum. 

Just FYI, the funding fee varies with where you earned your entitlement (reserve/NG, vs active) and if you have any VA disability (10% and there is no funding fee).