Our goal is to continue to find quality homes at a discount to fix up and owner- finance to buyers. 

I love my job in the Air Force and plan to continue serving my country, but I would like to own my own real estate investment business with a construction/home improvement branch.

@Homero RamirezIf you are already approved for an FHA loan, one of the easiest options would probably be to find a duplex and house hack while you continue your real estate investment education.

3)  Do you wait a year to renovate the property (considering question #1)4)  If you do wait a year and you use hard money to purchase the house, do you take out a traditional rehab loan at the end of year one or continue the hard money loan till the end of rehab (16-18 months total)?

BRRRR is common in commercial and your existing lender will need more of an appetite for a refinance if they know that they are going to loose the loan.Fannie, Freddie, and some local/regional banks actually have a supplemental loan feature that facilitates a BRRRR...the original loan stays in place and you get a supplemental loan when the property has been re-positioned, rents raised, and stabilized.There are also construction/perm loans where rehab is financed during the IO construction period and then the loan starts amortizing later. 

My question is, would owner financing be an option for me over the next three years where I can continue to live in the house and pay down the ultimate purchase price and refinance at the end of my tour so I could keep the house long term as a buy and hold type rental where the numbers work out for me.

For the last four years we had a stable economy, unemplyment keeps getting lower, continued low interest rates (anything below 8% is low) and a social trend towards renting (although millenials have started buying as of late).

There is a lot of revitalization going strong in areas, while the city continues to expand outward!

And continue one a year or so till I can convince honey , he could make double what he makes in a year with a flip...

I didn’t take the time to go to any mortgage companies after my wife was told in a real estate continued education class that the mortgage company didn’t do anything lower that $50,000.