Personally, I've known mobile home park owners with this challenge when trying to find smaller mobile homes to fill their lots.

Maybe you could get a cosigner as well.

This number seems very high considering we just bought the house a year ago, and we know buyer is also paying a title fee as well (we did that last year).

They may come up but understand that rental rates are generally well below market (hence the discount) and these deals are largely off-market if you're able to find them.

I am based out of NYC, but am currently active in the WNC market and I travel down quite frequently so would be interested in attending in-person events as well.

You can draft an installment contract for the future assumption as well.

That's exactly how a lender or creditor would treat the situation, as well.

@Matthew LorenzoTo learn from those who know investing well, it's smart to mix with them.

@Troy Smith - if you buy a new primary home its 5% down for a conventional loan or maybe FHA works as well with 3.5% down. 

Also, I would also not cross-collateralize the houses if a lender would even do a portfolio loan.On your second question about multifamily, I would not jump to multifamily until you have experienced the common management problems with single-family as the expenses scale with the size of the property as well as the cost of mistakes.I would consider getting Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) on each property.