My stomach is in knots on whether to put an offer in for the following property.

For your state (Washington), it's defined in the following link and you can read it to see what you must provide: Washington State Legislature: Landlord Duties

Personally I think it's gonna be a doozy, and I've heard economists and analysts say this time things are different - followed by those same people saying the most terrifying thing you could hear a financial analyst say is "this time things are different".

I guess a follow up question I didn’t know I had would be: so When your home goes up in value ($100k over 2 yrs in your example), and you only have 25% equity after 2 years (20% from down payment + 5% from extra 2 years of paying down), does that mean that you now have equity worth $100k (25% of $400k purchase price) or $125k (25% of $500k market value)?

While there, watching the sunset over the ocean, brainstorm why you want to do real estate and which of the following below you want to do & where.Decide which kind of investor you want to be (SFR, Commercial, Land, Tax Liens, Passive, HML, Multi-Family, Notes, Fix & Flip, Buy & Hold, "Subject To", apartments, duplexes, assisted living, REOs, Foreclosures, Short Sales), etc.

Lay down your rules and make sure they are aware no deviation will be permitted, they will be strictly enforced.

Feel free to follow up with me periodically to see if things are still running smoothly. 

They promised to pay back the rent for the entire lease period before they left but haven't paid back yet after multiple follow ups.

They have the added benefit of not hurting the pocketbook too.I've learned more and more that it's possible to get burned following strictly these rules, it's good to hear that we have to maybe pull back on these in an effort to at least secure a first house.I'm in complete agreeance that i need to get my feet wet and mostly look to learn (i just wish it didn't come at such a high price, but too bad eh?) 

We would move in following construction.