This scenario is common among active duty homeowners facing temporary relocation or PCS.

If you send your go-to lender your most recent tax returns and mortgage statements for each property, he should be able to work it up in like 10 minutes (assuming your property taxes and homeowner's insurance haven't changed significantly since you did your taxes). 

FHA and the USDA loan have permanent mortgage insurance which is an added cost that does nothing for you, whereas conventional removes the mortgage insurance once you have 20% equity in the property so if you can do conventional that is generally preferred but if you can make the numbers work FHA can be a good option too. 

What system is everyone using to keep track of property information such as insurance premiums, maintenance records, age of the A/C, etc.

After some research, it seems, there is nothing illegal about it, as long as there is not active knocking/engaging with the home owner, as well as staying away from communities whos HOA has a no trespassing signI get them all the time at my house, but they are usually for restaurants, which isn't offensive at all, which is why people probably won't complain and much as "I would like to help you sell your house if your house, etc"If anyone has any advice or knowledge about possible fines associated with this it would be much appreciated. 

I know this site mainly focuses on how to buy investment properties, but I thought I would touch on a subject that may help someone down the road avoid a potentially expensive pitfall through the proper insurance coverage.

I think I'd like to have all my money back so I can get into another property, while my tenants pay down principal... and I'm budgeting for capex, maint/repair, vacancy, insurance, taxes, and management... but is the benefit of having nothing in the deal worth having almost no true cash flow?

1- Secure contract with purchase price and terms2- Send contract to title (search and insure)3- Draft note and mortgage (you'll need a lawyer to do this- less than $500 likely)3- Seller uses proceeds (your down payment) to pay-off  the lien (The title company will handle all this)4- Close the transaction5- Establish payments to sellerYou'll want to make sure there will not be a delay between the payoff of the 1st lien- executing the "lien release" and closing your transaction- will require coordination.

Make sure you have good insurance in case she burns down the house.

What really helped me was understanding that homeowners expect PMs to do a lot of work for a measly 8- 10% of the rent.