There are tons of podcasts and forums around this, but you would be able to buy a house and earn a side income, possibly enough to cover your mortgage.

It sounds like a pattern of behavior, and the landlord/PM is abusing pet owners to cover their carpet costs. 

One thing I look for that is not related to whether or not if they can cover the rent is character.

The seller is asking 38k for his property and if he bought this property regularly, all cash $38,000, the 28,000 covers the cost of the lien and the seller would walk away with about $3000 after everything is prorated. 

Lender's will want policy coverage high enough to cover the loan balance. 

Another method is to sell the house to someone like me who buys on a VA Mirror Wrap, takes over the payments and the attorney does the paperwork to show that the payment is being covered.

I was hoping to BRRRR it, but unless I could reduce the purchase price to $95k the refinance wouldn't cover the purchase and rehab.  

I have the means to obtain the property, however, I will not have any money left over to cover the actual repairs.

My long term goal is to have enough income from my investments to cover my cost of living and be financially free.I found out about Bigger Pockets through my growing interest in real estate and investing in general.

Even with a househack, you'd still have around $2K a month in expenses that aren't covered (assuming you occupy the cheaper unit).