As you can tell, I had a client that had a horrible experience with 203k loan/lender that allowed them to get many different contractors for the repairs. 

I do have material allowances for some items, which on my $170-200k builds, is about $30-35k.

The property in question was actually a short sale that only allowed inspections for informational purposes only.

(Since BP does not allow me to link to my own site, you can find it by doing a Google search on "the real estate crowdfunding review how many to diversify").There has been no definitive study done, like was done by LendingRobot and Lendingclub for peer-to-peer loans, on the amount a typical retail investor would need.

You will receive a higher cash on cash return and more importantly, this allow you to keep some money to invest in future properties faster.  

Downside: It cuts into your bottom line increasing expenses, having to endure ridiculous rules that may not make sense to you or your tenants, restrictions on the number of units the HOA allow to be non-owner occupied (The HOA can decide to limit, reduce or expand the number of non-owner occupied units at any time).

Since you're in a college town, either one of these will take 3.5% down and allow you to purchase a building with up to 4 units.

That would give clarity to the situation at least as it concerns code violations, unapproved/permitted improvements and what will need to be done.I purchased a property in Pennsylvania with code violations and received a temporary U&O that allowed repairs, but not residential occupation. 

Always do a math analysis and try to look at the prospective properties before you make an offer or at least have a clause in the sales contract that allows you the time (usually about 15 days) to make a detailed inspection and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that will hurt you too much.I went to college too (and it is not mandatory) and I got a business degree that emphasized real estate.  

I can't include my personal email address as it isn't allowed on bp (my email was flagged until I removed it).Have you ran into any problems with them during any wholesale transactions?