I do my due diligence on Kevin (and his girlfriend) and he has zero evictions, zero criminal history, great credit score, referrals etc... ticks all the boxes. 

Several reasons:  Phoenix is an expensive and hyper-competitive market; your monthly income is $4K which in and of itself is limiting, but even more so with most of that being cash; and your credit score, while not terrible, needs to be raised, especially with you being self employed and a mostly cash income.

I also think the current climate to buy is bad and has been for a while now with no end in sight. 

You can typically get better cash flow (because the property is cheaper) in areas that don't really appreciate over time (the "bad" parts of town).

Agreed I think if there is specifics of a guru program to discuss then thats OK good or bad..

It will take some time to weed out the good from the bad.  

Or perhaps a foreclosure HUD is selling on hudhomestore dot com.On 203k you can buy with 3.50% down and get a seller credit for up to 6% of the sale price toward all closing costs and some of it can be used to buy the interest rate lower as well.

Borrower is very experienced with over 800+ credit score. 

Within this journey my credit dropped alot.

The rental use alone won't create a position, but it isn't a bad additional fact to have.