We don't need pristine, but we're not looking to put tens of thousands into it up front after purchase for repairs, just normal maintenance.-- ~75% rented.  

Also, are their repair estimates accurate or normally low?

If you average $10k per investor you will be putting in more than one investor into any asset of 'normal' size and if we approach median property values and the associated loans, you will have many.  

I do agree that this would be risky and probably not particularly smart under normal circumstance.I guess the elephant in the room is that my (job) income will go from ~$55,000 to >$200,000 when I complete training in 2017 or 2018 and this is virtually guaranteed unless the US healthcare system completely unravels.I am a bit more risk tolerant with that in the back of my mind.

Just a filing of the case and getting served a summons might be enough to get the buyer to wake up.14 months is a long time and now your buyer is used to not making a housing payment.  

Would some variation of Karpinski's "How to rent vacation properties by owner" work for a normal long term rental property?

.*  I moved home got treatments and life moved on as normal.  

Is this normal. thank you as always!

They are normally stable growing areas.

And make sure the insurance is for both liability and worker's comp.A small advance of 20-25% will be normal.