If you can drastically reduce your costs with scholarships I would do it.

This step alone eliminates the vast majority of applicants and reduces the additional risk.

A city with reducing population, blight, city Govt problems, etc. is a rough place to make money. 

This not only saves valuable time it also reduces my level of risk to the minimum.

Using wifi reduces voice/data usage, if that is a concern for the tenant.

I found that reduced my communications by over 90%.

Banking purely on appreciation feels too much like speculating to me, but if I can realize 30%+ NWROI via a house hack with an expected appreciation of 0%, then that starts to look a lot more compelling, especially when I do have the expectation that the property will appreciate (and as long as you're willing to deal with the intangible negatives, like reduced flexibility, property management, dealing with tenants, etc.).Having said all that, I presently have a property under contract in Morristown which is rented for 1% of the purchase price and cash flows well, but that's because one of the units is a 5BR which is rented by the room - a very unusual, risky, and potentially high-maintenance situation.

You can potentially get assigned the property and wholesale it to make the agreed upon money from the deal also reducing your partner's sales price.

I am going to contribute to it this year only to reduce my taxable income.

Sometimes i get $400 cash flow, plus $160 to principal on mortgage, but months of vacancy , and clean ups , and painting after a bad tenant, reduces some months to zero, o minus $ something.