The investment banker mentioned that the tenant can/will take over paying the mortgage, but I don't really know the details yet and what is best - for me and the prospective renter/buyer.If we don't do this rent-to-own deal, I can get a tenant in within one month. 

The property is located near Main Street and the local college campus... pretty good location for this small town.POPULATION:14,096UP 6% SINCE 2000AVERAGE INCOME:$59,823 PER YEARAVERAGE AGE:33 YEARSGENDER:50% MALE50% FEMALEHOUSEHOLDS:5,09936% WITH CHILDRENAVERAGE VALUE:$141,509OCCUPANCY:70% OWNED30% RENTED13% VACANTAVG.

Thanks, @Jonathan New for the mention!

I have been interested in real estate since a young age but never really had that push I needed to get me started. 

I just happened to click back on this thread.You mentioned estimating rehab costs.

You'll have to have the cash for the rehabs up-front, but basically how it works is you put your 25% down and get the 75% from the lender to acquire (there will be points and fees as @Christopher Phillips mentioned), and during the loan process, you'll provide bids for all of the work needing to be done to the property.

@Christopher Phillips What exactly are the state discounts that you had mentioned?

Don't be discouraged with the low inventory if your search gets started before spring.4) As you mentioned, I'd start to get to know several areas where you'd like to invest (down to the neighborhood level, not just city).

I'm a data-driven/spreadsheet kind of guy... and I thought for sure finding the correlation between rents and zip code would be blatant, but as mentioned above, there's no simple way to break the city apart because things change from street to street.  

Among the "magic words" you mentioned include, "... and we have a video of that too.