I wouldn't buy again under those same circumstances as an investment, but it made sense to me to keep due to the very limited money I had in the deal and the low rate from buying as a primary.

You don’t have much bargaining power because you have to use that contractor.

I am a young guy with zero experience in real estate and a VERY limited amount of experience in stock trading.

The good thing about the fees is that they cover some of the expenses lawn and plowing, much of the insurance, trash, sometimes water/sewer.The big thing is to read the association bylaws concerning rentals, often they require owner occupancy for one year, or they a have limited number of rental units.

TSP loan gets tricky, if I remember right you have time limits and I think it's 50k max (again there's time limit to when that number resets).In all honesty your best bet is likely finding a below market place to rent, find something with a landlord who's a person vs a company.

This gives you the power to take the property if you are not paid. 

My only concern is a power outage during a rain event - in which case the sump pump in the basement would overflow and flood the basement. 

We got an AMAZING deal on a house, had like 5" of standing water in the crawl space, all because the power was off, so the subpump wasn't working.. once we turned it on, majority of the water cleared out!   

You just can't take title until after your sale.Regarding the number of replacements there is no limit on how many you purchase. 

Which in Vegas with 12 homes is usually limited to 1-2 water heaters.