If you as a landlord thing you have the ability to change the lifestyle habits of your tenants, you've got a whole lot of hurt coming your way.

The issue being is it’s a little above my normal price range and a little outside my normal investing area.

It's about an hour from where I would normally invest but a deal is a deal.

If by chance you're just trying to do a normal refi then you don't need to wait 6 months unless you want to.

You should be able to take any normal business expenses associated with RE including section 179 and normal depreciation.

If you think pure mathematically, the amount of tenants out there who are going to stay 5+ years and move during "normal" months is always going to be drastically lower than the folks who move ever 1-2 years and all months of the year. 

Does this seem like normal procedure?

Things (in general) are less likely to fall apart if agents are involved, assuming this is a normal owner occupied deal.

If she can't get her paperwork in it is a normal pet. 

I normally use 10%, you may be able to only use 8%.