If you can afford a more costly property, you can realize a much greater cash flow, wind up with better tenants, a better property realizing more appreciation, and have an easier time renting.I have some leads on some quadplexes, and duplexes in the Tampa Area, if anyone is interested.

Hi Corey,The strategy we took with a 203k loan was to get into the 203k loan first, and pay the PMI, and then refinance as quickly as possible once the renovation was completed and we had brought the property value up, so we could get rid of the PMI.This is a more expensive option (you pay two sets of closing costs), but we couldn't afford the up-front costs on a conventional renovation loan, so it's what we did, and the numbers worked out once we evaluated the savings from eliminating the PMI.I would shop around different lenders to see what kind of conventional renovation loans they offer.

I currently work in management in the health care industry and am pursuing my MBA on a part-time basis. 

Debt to income ratio: They need to make sure that you can actually afford to pay the loan.

You must be smart to make enough to afford a 4k mortgage.  

I moved back in no small part due to the accelerating real estate market here, where prices are still affordable. 

Timely, efficient, and affordable.

But as Mark said, the devil is in the details...check into the financial health and the covenants of the HOA you may potentially buy into to ensure you understand as much as you can.  

Upshot is that I could then deduct health insurance and other business expenses directly against the income (and can offset deals gone bad against income)Has anyone done this and have thoughts on it?  

I would just get a decent, affordable storage shed and be done with it.