Those are the best ones to truly compare your market rate.Like others said, you must honor a lease so you can't change or end it before then.

I push comparables when I list a home to make my sellers more money but I know I have to sell it to the appraiser too.

If I said "yes", the application required me to give them the names of those banks (I assume for marketing purposes).

Multiple mtg inquiries count as one, as the credit bureaus know you are comparing.

Living in Iowa in 2014, I noticed how inexpensive all the houses were compared to where I grew up and that piqued my interest in real estate.

I wrote the above for informational purposes.

Or does a property have to be either a primary residence or an investment property for tax purposes?

However, there are lot more experienced investors at that meetup compared to a lot of the OC meetups I have gone to.

I currently have 100K in the bank doing absolutely nothing and I want to get the best bang for my buck in terms of properties/investment.I figured that if I am able to invest 100K outside my state, I would be able to buy several properties and put them to work for me compared to just buying one here in NY. 

I financed the best one conventionally at the highest appraised price possible, then had them carry the others at a comparable discount using some of the loan money as DPs on the seller financed properties.