If I can grow 80% or more of what I eat, I can pay for the other 20% with profits from selling good food to folks in the Valley.

Eat Breakfast at Cafe Brasil in Deep Ellum, lunch at someplace in downtown Denison, stop for coffee at Sandwich Hag in the Cedars (Dallas) and then have dinner at Lockhart BBQ in Bishop Arts. 

I asked the clerk if it was common for the contractor to not show up and her response was...most have outstanding warrants and leins and won't come near the courthouse.Not sure what you are out but it might be better to limit your losses and eat the money. 

I could be somewhat flexible on age of the house, but I chose 10 years because if we are living out of state, we would need to rely on local contractors for repairs and capital items, which can be costly and eat up all your annual profit.

However, I feel like this 15-20% would eat into my profits too much but it would definitely make the whole process much smoother. 

Since they only require a minimum of 3.5% down it wouldn't eat up all my funds, which could be used elsewhere in other projects/rentals, and on top of that I could pretty much live rent free with even some positive cashflow.

So make sure what're you do with the money that you are gonna profiting well so it doesn't eat into your bottom line and don't play with the money

In a state that a lender can get a deficiancy judgement if the deal goes through foreclosure the client can get their credit trashed and end up with a big fat judgement against them.. ( state specific).the reason your probably getting buyers that want to do this is because of all the online notoriety currently like Pace Morby who is huge in the space and the legions of students and followers and then to a lesser extent there is BP's own Sub to Guys..

I'll just eat the Capital gains and put money aside for next year 

If I like the applicant, I'll often eat the cost of a supplemental report.