@Josh RicordYour strategy may be tight financially, but if you can be strict with minimizing your extra curricular spending and keep saving money, you should be ok. 

They are not strict with tenants, they buy properties in tenant-friendly states/counties, and son on.I would bet you that if one of your RE 'friends' would come on here and show us their business practices, we would see a poorly run business.Anyway, never listen to the naysayers, it sounds like you are set up well and you're on this forum, which gives you a huge advantage.

We recoup quite a bit of money and to qualify for it, they are not very strict, it's pretty liberal.

Stay disciplined in your rental requirements, as long as they are not too strict but your agent should have advised you on this.

I strictly work with investors and these are common questions!

I do strictly HVAC so I'm not sure about plumbing.

My experience is that they are very strict with attorneys. 

Make sure they have insurance and are licensed (if required) we have gotten more strict with that.

Ive never owned, or renovated in HoCo where  J is the next county over, so I dont know how strict they are.

The Oregon rules are extremely strict.