We went to Home Depot and found a knowledgeable employee who walked us through the different brands as well as pros and cons.

A good intermediary will walk you through all of this exactly how you want and what's allowed.

Although, we will be walking away with quite a bit of equity from this one so we plan to purchase two four-unit buildings; one with conventional financing and the other with the VA loan.

Quick one - Under contract on the first out of state rental (SFH - 3/1) - inspection early next week, having a friend go to it (he is a handyman) to walk with the inspector to give me honest feedback otherwise im flying up for it.Using second home mortgage for it with 20% down - Plan is to keep in my name and just get a big umbrella policyAnything else anyone suggests to make this go smoothlyProperty management company in placeThanks in advance

If you think the complaints are going to keep flooding in, I recommend that you get a rental inspection checklist and do a complete walk through to see what repairs need to be made. 

We'd walk away from the $3,000 in a heartbeat. 

Additionally, the value I added was thoughtful win-win negotiation as the agent to ensure all parties walked away happy.

First off my goal;My line of work is changing at some point at no fault of my own (finance) and what I do (which pays six figures) is the target replacement level income TO WALK AWAY FROM THE JOB. 

It can and does work anywhere just know consistent cash flow to pay for the mortgage is harder to get as you go from lower income to slums (not that low income is always walk in the park either). 

The property is also in a very attractive location, within walking distance to the downtown area, and has an extremely rich history as it is was the historic town hospital.