It seems like a lot of houses have deferred maintenance that will eat up much of your cash flow in the first couple of years.Good luck to you!!!

It can never hurt to be sure you're setting aside enough for future events (especially if this is a SFH) and one month of vacancy could eat up several months of your cash flow.  

Only to reduce the cost of their $22,000 mistake by $2,200, and I expect them to try to recoup that in later CO'sAt this point I think they should eat at least half of the Unapproved CO's, but their lack on communication and delay tactics are making the legal route look ominous.Any other advice or guidance on how to proceed?

After 10 years your nest egg of money is then smaller than it was.

Is that going to eat up all of your rental income and leave you high and dry when you need to pay the bills?

Maybe I can't have my cake and eat it too (i.e., suck it up buttercup and get a commercial/portfolio loan), but I'm going to at least try first!!!

Chicken vs the egg dilemma I guess. 

At least I dumped a bag of cat food on the porch for the feral cats. 3 cats immediately ran up to eat.

No matter the economy people don't stop brushing their teeth, eating or cutting off their prescribed meds; similarly, they never stop needing some place to live (though they may substitute lower cost alternatives, so higher end rentals may be more at risk). 

Unlike commercial real estate for example retail where tenants pay your property taxes on a NNN lease you have to eat any rise in cost on multifamily.