Granted, I'm putting in 3.5% down (FHA) and plan on house hacking (I do add my "rent" to the calculations).

Even if they are approved but you have not received the payment yet you can tell the judge you no longer want to accept payment and the judge will grant an eviction .

Long distance investing is no problem granted we can build a solid team.

Grant,For title, I would highly recommend Aurora Title (804-729-9005). 

Additionally, there are several tenants who have applied for state grant to help with rents.

It is a fee to an investor for granting the option#2 seems too thin to be a solid 5% down payment.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Grant Cardone’s podcast lately and that’s been helpful with getting back into the growth mindset I need to be in.

As for the competitiveness of the FHA offer (In Texas, and specifically Austin) there are some weaker points:  You cannot put any kind of an appraisal waiver, which means over asking or even asking price offers grant low confidenceThe federal loan products have stricter property condition requirementsConventional usually means they have more cash to bring and sellers may find that more reassuringThese are not deal killers, but it is certainly a disadvantage. 

The city has grants available to help with 50% of the rehab costs.

I'd aim to spend $200-300k on construction costs.The main reason I'm interested in building, versus buying an existing $200-300k house, is that my city offers a decent grant: $25k toward my child's college tuition, as long as I stay in the house for at least four years.