Make they clean, indestructible and low maintenance and you will be sitting in the cat bird's seat.Oh by the way 22 years at 650 per month average = $171,600 in rent before expenses! 

The idea for the househack I would love as a starting point especially because it kills two birds with one stone.

The good part is that you kill 2 birds with one stone by locating deals plus learning your market as you drive it over and over. 

Debt is awfully cheap right now and locking in a fixed mortgage in the 3s over the long term is no small thing.But yeah, @Bill Brandt is almost certainly right, its pretty hard to beat the primary property tax benefit and you are looking at a pretty big bird in the hand.

Is the mentor willing to JV with you and have you on the HUD1 with OPM and not just be their bird/dog with a referral fee?

A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

In an area with very few rentals, and very few 5 bd / 4 ba properties, there are not a lot of comps, and thus we will provide an estimate, but accompany that with a caveat that the estimate has "low" confidence. 

Sell real estate, wholesale or bird dog it.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as it were.  

We dont want to get blown away by the wind - we've had enough of that in KS, lots of sunshine as alluded - the gray dreariness is for the birds - we get more of that in Topeka than we anticipated and lots of open spaces to be outdoors offroading, riding ATVs, fishing, pheasant or quail hunting, bike riding etc.