Speaking from experience, there are tons of valuable resources, threads, members, and articles to glean from on here.Glad to have you here!

Speak with lender but I believe once you have 20 or 25% equity you can owner occupy another property with less then 10% down possibly FHA.

Generally speaking, would buy and hold investors consider a purchase of a portfolio of rental properties, 90% occupied, for 85% ARV if that 85% resulted in acceptable cashflow (say $15,000/month) and over $2 million in equity?

@Reginald Dearmon,  I cannot speak about the expo as I believe tht is an annual event, but I think I can comfortably state that you could attend a Real estate meetup at least once every week in the Houston area, if not even more often.  

You may pm and we can speak.

Speaking as a property manager whose company does do rehabs, you might find that the realtor knows of a PM company who does that too, and then it might have the added benefit of you finding a PM not just to finish the rehab but to also manage it for you since you're out of the area.

I only say probably because I can't speak for your investing.

After speaking with the officer afterwards he stated he's gonna use a different lender just give him a little time.

Hi All,I recently was stuck in the "Rat Race" in Chicago and I quit my job, moved to Denver and looking for a fresh start both professionally and academically so to speak.

Upon speaking to the realtor he confirmed that the homeowner was looking for 349k.