We should have waited till we could line up our own financing to buy an STR ourselves.

Yes, it will be tough, but as others have correctly mentioned, so will doing this full time.This challenge will also force you to invest your time wisely, which is ALWAYS a good thing to learn and practice.FYI: my manager was in the mortgage business working 70+ hours weekly, but found time to buy and rehab rentals for 3 years.

I'm seeing other section 8 listings in the area mention that the tenant is responsible for their own appliances, so I feel like I'm missing a simple solution here or is it possible that section 8 would do the inspection, pass, and just inspect the tenants appliances later?

You paid retail price and you're waiting for appreciation over time.I hope this helps!

As @Eliott Elias mentioned, you really need to be familiar with Killeen or have boots on the ground to help you figure out what properties to buy there since Killeen can change street to street and you won't want to get into a rough area. 

After the inspection, we renegotiated to wait until the tenants were vacated.

Certainly wait until the deal is fully closed. 

Had you been in business for a while with money in the bank in order to get those credit cards you mentioned such as Home Depot and Chase Ink?

 I do business in every state you mentioned and I prefer MD and Philly of them.

I've gotten part of it still waiting for the rest.