@Brent OlivierI am a fan of intelligent leverage. 3 homes allows you to scale faster, and scaling is what I believe most people are interested in the most in terms of long-term investing.

Some lenders have shied me away from the 203K, another I just spoke with seems to be a big fan, though she mentioned loans above $35,000 can be very tedious and time-consuming for FHA Borrowers. .

I’m also not a fan of FSBO.

Pull the trigger and get ready to learn.I'm not a fan of turnkey but I guess it may help get you out of analysis paralysis. 

I am not a big fan of dollar stores.

Tenant turns are going to happen more frequently than you are planning and are going to be much more expensive.  

With those considerations, if things were to "hit the fan"I don't want to be in a situation where I would be having to pay two mortgages at one time.My parents are completely financially free.

If the tenant isn't a credit tenant, you may want to reconcile more frequently than that.If you have national or global credit tenants, they'll maintain the premise and reimburse landlord for out of pocket expenses as the expense is incurred.

I am not an Airbnb fan.

Not sure the exact cost but the husband said $2-3 thousand...Like you, I am not a fan of the walk-in tub, so I'm going to steer them to a walk in shower with built in seat.