But should you decide to sell one day maybe then it makes sense to do.

If the cost of cleaning is less than one days rental then it makes sense to hire someone when needed.

My real estate agent is going to do that on my behalf.Given that this is a new construction and there will be a warranty on the home, does it make sense to spent more on an independent, 3rd party agency to do the home inspection?

Remember this, those brokerages that said you can only start full time would let you start full time and then go get another job, which does not make a lot os sense.

If you are building across the street from an elementary school, then more 3 bedroom may make sense.

That said...You get hand-holding and piece of mind.Some gurus will sponsor a deal for you (if it makes sense for them) and more than likely, offer to buy your deal from you. 

So i've been reading a couple of books on real estate investing and get an overall sense of " get off your butt and start doing"  The current book i'm reading is by Brandon Turner " the book on rental property investing" Great book and I feel like it's giving me a good path forward towards starting investment in real estate. 

I would worry less about the competition and offer a price and terms that makes sense for you.

Perhaps RESPA or some other Fair Housing Laws such as EHO (Equal Housing Opportunity) might make more sense.

The reality is that if it's an un-subsidized portfolio mortgage, the rate/points needs to beat the ROI of a Wall Street index fund or generic REIT, or it would never make sense for a lender to do the loan, since they could park the $400k with Wall Street or a REIT and make more than they'd make by lending you money.