Maintenance costs don’t usually decrease over the years, so if you go with landscaping that needs care, expect your costs to increase over time.

So now it will be a 4 year redemption period.

It can come at the very end so that you're not wasting your time (and theirs), but the kind of long term damage that a bad tenant will cause to a property is not something that they can quickly and easily hide so you want to get eyes on how they are currently living.The age of the house has nothing to do with section 8.

First time home buyer and I decided to go with Pomona.

Like in a high-stakes bank robbery film, only this time you're negotiating the exciting and frequently unpredictable world of real estate financing rather than robbing a bank.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

This seller has many more properties to sell off in time and would like to keep the relationship going but once I tell perspective investors that they cannot access the properties they lose interest. 

or let go of the primary home idea for the mean time and went straight to real estate investing? 

If you start filling up to quickly then you might be too cheap. 

I know I need a perk test and a survey, but the land owner would like an assessment of how much and the time frame.