Check with your employer/benefit plan, some have rules that if its not your primary residence that you need to pay back the loan within 5 years, some plans do not let you make additional payments but allow pay off in full as early as you want, also if you leave your employer anytime before the loan is due, you may have to pay it off or pay a penalty.  

@Andrew Beshara, I've helped a lot of foreign investors acquire properties here in the States and have a great attorney/cpa firm that can assist in your individual situation and what your income tax implications may be.  

We've started to do research but are still unsure about the best way to acquire financing as a group.

We had all the RIGHT puzzle pieces sitting in our laps (great realtor, carpenters, and mortgage broker as close friends and family) so we just had to simply put them together (with a lot of hard work and having a family of 4 living in one room at a time for a couple years.)We are now moving to Roslyn, WA and hope to start a similar (although not as extensive) project there and also try to acquire some SFHs in Kittitas County to start our REI education/climb to billions. :) This feels like bragging, but it was a lot of market luck, hard work, amazing friends, and a wife with an eye for staging.

I'm looking to acquire real estate through a hard money lender who will lend based on a percentage of the appraised value.  

I've run some numbers for flipping it, and even acquiring it at the listed price, I should still be able to make a decent profit, approximately 20% of the ARV.

Could additional provision added to a Texas standard lease overwrite Texas Property Code 92? 

You are already saddled and stressed with debt, I don't think you need an additional dose with hard money, unless the deal is one in a life time.

I will do some additional research as well.

You have 60 days to move into the property, then must occupy it for an additional 12 months after you move in before you can move out.