See if any of the renters are planning to leave, then you can set a clear departure date and take over their rental.

The local angle can give you that edge against other buyers, especially when you are dealing with high equity owners who might be older and a little weary of some company coming in wanting to buy their house.One down side to consider is, hand writing all of your letters will be time consuming, but there are ways to get around that.

I'd say it's hard to get both. the best construction finances are on biggerpockets. we give 5-10 to our clients to consider and talk to whether they use them or not all the lenders know who we are and we form relationships with all of them. most are active on biggerpockets and can help get people out of construction even if they don't know anything 

You should only consider switching when your current software has a significant flaw or lacks features that force you to spend excessive time on workarounds.

We are considering, if successful, purchasing an additional property/rental for grad students (hopefully less wear and tear) and what seems like a consistent rental market.

Fico Scores can drop fast when a person starts to open and take out multiple LOC's and mortgages which is considered "Excessive tradelines" based on your DTI.Helocs are great for quick renovations or repairs and should be used and paid off or down quickly.

Another thing to consider if an overflowing toilet or pipe breaking occurs on the top unit, both units will be affected so that's something to consider.

I will have 1 year of income but have heard it has to be 2 years worth for lenders to consider it.

Things like this can be relatively low cost low risk propositions if managed well but can set your units apart from others who don't offer these things.

Lastly, something to think about: a few investors set up a management LLC that will not own any property but, in turn, deal with any third parties.