As Dawn Anastasi said above she isn't in this to become a multi millionaire , but her goal is to have more time while earning a mostly passive income ( versus working a full time job at least ) As they say, " different strokes for different folks " I recently heard that most people on their deathbed don't regret not being at work more.

In order to reduce unforeseen repair costs, do you recommend the investor perform cosmetic and light repairs on the property.? 

I've even reduced the pay I'm looking for and that's even still more than what most real estate companies will pay me with no field experience.

I used O'Connor one year to reduce my taxes, and they reduced my taxes a grand total of $120.

It's likely that your family equity in this home is only going to earn 1-3% so if you elect to go the cash flow route, selling the property and rolling from 1 property into 10-15 properties that earn 15-25% Cash on Cash Returns and up to 5x the income might be the better route. 

However, while this would improve the cap rate since I wouldn't have to pay MIP, it would reduce my cash on cash return since I would have much more money tied up in the down payment.

Is there an opportunity to drastically reduce expenses?

You are suggesting a "blanket loan", I have done a few of these.If you are going to do this, you need to negotiate releases otherwise, when you sell one of those properties, the bank will take all of the potential proceeds.Negotiate terms that state when your loan balance is reduced to a certain amount, the lender release some of your collateral.Failure to do this will lock up your properties until the loan is paid off!

If you are not planning on holding the departing residence for a minimum of 8-12 years as a rental which still might not be long enough to take a hit to the equity that's there and recover it fully (if it takes such a hit), then sell now and redeploy the equity into your new house (if you are so inclined) or invest it into any number of principle protected low or no load investments that can return at least as much as it will likely earn as equity...with no risk of loss of principal.  

The loan would still be in the current owners name, which may affect his debt to earning ratio if he is trying to buy something else.