Being active-duty have a lot of challenges when investing, like most of us know, one of them being the trust. 

@Cody Evans  As an agent you will need to begin building your identity as a trusted advisor in home sales and purchases. 

Index funds at current frothy levels doesn't seem wise.

I trust him and believe this to be a good thing but our mentoring relationship is quite new.

It's critical as an out of state investor to build a team that you trust to advise you

I'm working on finding my first deal in Atlanta and could really use the advice of a trusted contractor.

On a high level, I can tell you that talking to a lender is a great first step (can get you referrals if you need them) because they can help you lock down on your financing and/or build out a plan for where your financing needs to be.

So if the fixed minimum is 95% of a current FHA appraisal - then the list price for this house is probably be set at this level?

I really need a number I can trust and not fudged like you said.

These are often called portfolio lenders because they keep their deals in-house and only have to get it to pass muster with the bank's board of directors (BOD), or some long-term, trusted loan officers have a limit up to which they can approve loans without consulting the BOD.