I am ok with commuting up to 30 minutes, so the areas I've been looking has been from the mid Raleigh area (draw a line from NCSU through downtown) all the way down to Clayton, NC.My fear is purchasing a house which doesn't appreciate at all, having trouble selling quickly, or having trouble finding a renter to cover all costs of the house (including a property manager). 

Also, you may decide to manage the property yourself so that you can keep the property management fee.All in all, I think it is a great idea to purchase a rental, even if it doesn't work out as expected as long as your willing to learn correctly from the experience.  

What if the paperwork doesn't check out and you want out but you have no inspection contingency what options do you have then - can there be some kind of 'document review period contingency'?

You'll never make a dollar that doesn't come from the hand of another person.

The idea of getting $160,000 for a house 5 years from now that is worth $250,000 doesn't seem very appealing.

Seller financing comes in when the seller doesn't have enough equity to hire a real estate agent, or doesn't want the hassles of fixing up the house or needs to sell right away and doesn't have a lot of choice.

Hopefully that never happens to you and it doesn't happen to a lot of good investors, but you need to know that there are no counter-options for you to take if you're not registered in that state, typically through an LLC. 

If you find something out there higher than 70%, it's not a conventional mortgage so likely doesn't have the nice rates & terms that are usually associated with conventional loans.Conventional appraisals on 1-4 unit properties will use the Sales Comparison approach, so even though you've nearly doubled your income, you're still going to be bound my recent comparable sales.

Are you saying a sellers agent doesn't have to report the zoning to the buyer? 

After doing what you've been doing, buying real estate probably doesn't seem too risky.