My immediate goal is to acquire our first property and spend the next two years mastering the basics of real estate investment. ( Refining the Go and No property search criteria/ Learning the value of taxes and avoiding them as much as possible/ 1031 exchanges) Depending on my wife’s career orders, we may remain in Baltimore for 1-2 years, but I’m also exploring opportunities in West Texas, Sierra Vista, AZ, and Houston, TX.

The amount of capital required from your savings to purchase multiple properties depends on the appreciation rates.

@Kyle Carter  We love renting to Section 8, however depending on the size of the property you may not be able to realistically rent to 100% section 8.

It depends on a lot of factors; primarily the local jurisdiction rules that may limit lease changes (in Portland/Oregon rent, security deposit, screening fees, an no-cause evictions are heavily regulated).

Prepayment penalties are a thing of the past, so dump your bitcoin into paying down the balance (and, possibly, dropping the PMI) after the fact - no one sources where you make your normal monthly mortgage payments from.It's going to be in limbo and a giant "it depends" until such time as someone opens a Bitcoin clearing house that does all the little compliance and PATRIOT Act things that Wells Fargo and Fidelity do, or (more likely) until such time as Fidelity or Wells Fargo adds Bitcoin to their financial service offerings. 

I’m back now and looking for some guidance on an idea that caught my attention.An old high school friend of mine has been buying older houses, either renovating or tearing them down and rebuilding, depending on their condition.

There's many other options in real estate such as syndication and note investing depending on your level of involvement. 

We see a tightening or restricting of coverage, higher deductibles, more tedious underwriting requirements, and increasing rates.As far as deductibles specifically, it really depends where you are in the country. 

My view it’s that it’s always better building a brand rather then focussing purely on the aggregators (whether Airbnb or otherwise) but it would depend on your objectives as an investor/operator of your own spaces. 

I am also in Cincinnati and I did speak with True Home Ohio (https://truehomeohio.com) and they seemed to be somewhat reasonable except I believe they take a flat fee of $105 per door so depending on how much rent is for that door it could be cheaper or more expensive but their other fees I thought were very reasonable.