I have a tenant planning to move to Eugene, Oregon around June 1, 2019 (date somewhat flexible) looking for a 3-4 bed, 2 bath, with a fenced in yard.

The former is in my field and would be a lot of fun and have great flexibility.

If you intend to occupy, you can buy with as little as 3-5% down.You could find a private lender that may be more flexible.

Sometimes people are stuck on price and flexible on terms. 

If you're young enough (or flexible enough) to "house hack" by living in one of the units while forcing appreciation in the others, then that strategy has tons of benefits in terms of getting started.Lastly, I would recommend teaming up with a partner in whatever area you're looking at and decide if there's a good fit. 

The flexibility they offer has been very helpful.

We use anywhere from 5 - 10% depending on project flexibility.

If you have flexibility and are comfortable investing out of state, I would explore warmer areas or places with less crime but you need to have the right teams in place so start networking, finding brokers and begin conversations to start learning markets and getting listings forwarded to you that fit your criteria.

If you can, you might look at a heloc to leave your current principal and interest alone and give you some flexibility as well just in case something unexpected comes up. 

My work is flexible and I plan on visiting the following investment locations in the next 3 weeks:  Kansas City MO, Indianapolis IN, Columbus OH, Cincinnati OH, and Cleveland OH.