Buy and hold usually.

It may sound nice to pay a 5% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no add-on fees.

If you are trying to use the "Delayed Financing" exception a couple of things you should keep in mind, #1 you must have paid all cash for the property (no borrowed funds for purchase) and no liens on the property #2 you can use the maximum LTV allowed for purchase of property (ie. for an owner occupied property 97/95% LTV or non-owner occupied max is usually 80-85% LTV) #3 must refi within 6 months of purchasing the property (so for the most part you are going to use the purchase price plus improvements rather than the new appraised value) #4 property will have to qualify condition wise within the lenders guidelines, so no major work should be outstanding like broken windows, holes in the roof, ect. 

My girlfriend and I have stable jobs with the government and we max out our retirement accounts (TSP, Roth IRA, HSA), and we’re now looking for ways to deploy our extra, after-tax savings.

The idea of “shady paperwork” is usually just a delusion promoted by some.Someone with legal control over the property /estate needs to reach out to the bank if you want to explore the possibility of a discounted pay off.

As Colleen said, usually an ESA is considered a reasonable accommodation so I'm going to assume that you can't deny her.

I also recently started looking at ways to bring in some extra cash to accelerate my wealth building results.

I collect a payment from the Tenant Buyer "up front" as a down payment, usually within a month from when I've bought the property.

My BIL has really wanted to start doing the same but usually can't make any outside meetings.

Or you may be referring to local incentives (usually state or city based grants = free money) for communities that need people to buy primary residence in order to stabilize the town.