I also expect a lot of newer investors to scatter in the next few years as they start to deal with rent reductions, less cash flow, tenant difficulties, etc.

I would do the deal for a $3000 reduction in purchase price.Maybe everyone meets in the middle.

Just anecdotally, I've noticed a lot of Austin SFRs with price reductions on Zillow & Redfin recently.

(Sometimes they will give you a 0.25% rate reduction if you take a 25k or more initial draw from the HELOC.

No magic pill.

What matters is the quality of the opinions you accept and allow to influence your decisions.I have people around me achieving success doing fix and flips / rehabs as well as buy-and-holds.Debt reduction is always recommendable.

Now all the guru's will emerge and sell you their magic blue pill.

As we talked about earlier, the main benefits of this program are the reduction in mortgage insurance from 30% coverage to 25% (lender jargon), which means your monthly mortgage insurance payment goes from $133.38 to $93.36 on a $150,000 purchase, and the other benefit is being able to put as low as 3% down opposed to the traditional 5%.

Good to consider creative solutions, but never good to overpay $35k+, Christian.If the seller can demonstrate financial hardship and is behind, a short sale may be an option.Also heard the FHFA has a new program of principle reduction for those that qualify.  

Between these three properties, they are going to generate roughly $1200/mo in positive cash flow that I would build up for the downpayment on the next property and snowball it until Im 35 at which point I would swich to principal reduction so I can have them paid off by the time Im 50.