If it is an investment property, strictly than you can get away with 15% down, but you would be required to pay mortgage insurance. 

Are their certain expense items you can leave out, or is it very important to keep strict accounting records? 

There are portfolio products that go strictly based on the cash flow of the properties, but your rate is going to be higher than conventional.

Group meetings that are strictly men, I'm not aware of.

[BUT I don't know what state/city you're in... some states/cities are much more strict than the federal standards]I absolutely would not paint the basement for that reason - and I wouldn't invest in encapsulating paint unless you know what you're doing. 

We are trying to decide if this is strictly an exercise in how much liquid funds we want to have available, along with a comparison of ROI to any other potential investment, or are we missing another consideration.

The Chicago Ordinance is very strict as it relates to security deposits for non-owner occupied properties.   

"I'm a part time substitute kindergarten teacher and my husband sells sawdust out of the garage so we have a strict budget of $920,000 for the house." 

Some of the local banks around me have some terms for cash out refi and base it strictly on property performance and ARV.

First thing that comes to mind is with the VA strict inspections the property isn't going to be a property with a lot of issues so not a lot of room to ad value.