I figure the stepping stone approach may be best suited for my game plan.

Maybe worth a call/interview with them to see their approach. https://www.mynd.co/locations/...Best of luck. 

Curious to see if anyone has been through this and what the best way is to approach this process, steps involved & what risks to consider.Thanks so much!!

also if we were to make only but a few extra payments every few years from now we'd pay off that extra interest and shorten the loan life to account for the added costs...with todays rates etc thoughts on this approach?

Without knowing your end goal it is not possible to say how you should approach this.

Other investors will tell you to never buy a negative cashflowing home.You really have to find out what is the best approach for you and what your goals are, as well as what the opportunity costs are. 

Look for hard or private money to fund the purchase price and rehab, and then approach a commercial lender after tenants are in place

Utilize FHA loan for first time home buyer which requires you to put only 3.5% as down-payment plus closing cost meaning with your share of 10 k you can buy a property worth under 150 k all by yourself( 5,250 down-payment + 3750 approx towards closing cost ) idle approach is to buy it only on  your name for house hacking and to involve partner for other investmentopportunity... hope this helps..

Sometimes we may even have to put up additional collateral (sports cars, lake houses, personal homes equity etc.)Yes there are ways for a company to get a loan that is not personally guaranteed by the business owner.

A different approach is placing a “tester” ad on Craigslist (posting a fictitious sf rental deal to see if the specs you choose can drive contact) and when receiving calls about this property you simply say “It is no longer available, however, would you like to be added to my investor list to know about the next one?”