@Gayatri MartinThe banks asks questions of everyone to minimize terrorist funding and anti money laundry scams. 

No matter how minimal the down payment is; you are going to be out of pocket multiple years of money that you could have spent just renting.

As you can see it’s minimal. 

still afraid of investing out of state.Though afraid I am looking into Texas (not sure specific location) for at least a SFR/duplex with Minimal work to get started. 

If the house truly has income potential, possibly you could work out a private money loan deal with family/friends/investor to loan you the additional down payment to get the bigger house for the income potential.If your DTI supports a higher purchase price than your initial pre-approval then talk to the mortgage broker.The last thought that comes to mind is if you find a home that already has a leased tenant that would help demonstrate that the house is already an income property and cash flowing so the bank may see this as a lower risk of default.Ultimately the lender is looking to minimize risk so putting you in more house than you can afford isn't going to happen without some other risk mitigation steps like the ones I noted. 

Nothing worth doing financially is risk free and I understand that 100% but legal risk is something I’d like to minimize to 0 if possible lol.

My objective is not to minimize the risks or misrepresent the offering -- just to explain what it is in a way they will understand.

I don't think such thing exists as in US, check with your CPA, Accountant for ways to minimize taxes in Canada, as laws are completely different. 

Rehabbing from out of state can be a mess and I would always recommend either avoiding that or minimizing work to basic cosmetics.

Closed quickly with minimal repair issues.