One class of renter that's really getting squeezed is the graduate/professional - there's lots of undergraduate housing, but in Radford in particular there's not a great deal of quality properties for folks like the graduate/professional.

FHA gets a "bonus" since even 4 family units are allowed to be 3.5% down...Generally, nowadays investor properties are 20% to 25% down as I recall depending if its on teh purchase or on a refi (latter is definitely 25% down / 75% ltv)But, I think back to your question...  

There is not enough information here for folks to help you.

Since we serve low income, folks can only get subsidies if the utilities are in their name. 

When/if you PCS buy a single family home with 3bd 2ba in a good school zone, house hack with some military folk (good tenants because we have to pay) and get the snowball rolling.I hope that helps out a bit.

I think this speaks volumes about character development and loyalty in such settings to create morally sound folk and great people overall but I’d like to know how to better apply such recruitment and selection criteria when it comes down to reaching contractors to begin with a positive narrative.

It is considered "self-employment", so the 2 years is a must;  this will make some lenders uneasy, where as others will be perfectly fine with it-I am assuming you are a physician as such - you should have local banks that have "private banking" - aka dedicated service for folks in certain fields (physicians, dentists, JDs, CPAs, business execs, etc).

The one I like though is and I think you and I agree on this.. but buying at or close to the median price point of a given MSA to me is a critical for out of area.. just gives you a leg up on quality assets and generally speaking a mixture of owner occ and rentals in the area instead of 100% rentals or high % rentals.. and of course buying 50% under the Median is inviting high risk for out of state folks..  

Hello BP members - I live in Durango and do fixing flips, but I would like to do some multi family investing projects & meet up w like minded folks- my name is Denise Baca, and I am trying to figure out how to connect with Jens Nielsen meet up group, can you assist me further & I would love to connect in person Jens

Folks seem very willing to dramatically pay more in these “affordable” markets in a feeding frenzy fueled by cheap mortgages and limited choices for house hunters.