There's either a fireplace, kitchen, or utility room in the way and adding additional rooms will more than likely exceed my budget considering I would have to reposition other things.

Lukes has about 10000)Professional & Technical Services - 85%Construction - 85%Transportation & Warehousing - 46% (FedEx is expected to begin construction of a 1 million sq foot megahub in the next 30-60 days, adding about 400 jobs, Amazon also has a major distribution center here) The median household income for both Lehigh ($54,923) and Northampton ($60,097) counties exceed the median income estimate for Pennsylvania ($52,548) and the USA ($52K).Potential NeighborhoodsI am interested in areas surrounding Allentown and Bethlehem.

Always do the numbers to make sure you know what you are looking at and try to look at the property before you make an offer or at least have a clause in the sales contract that allows you the time (about 15 days) to inspect the property and possibly back out without a penalty that exceeds the earnest money you put against it.

The initial money should be around 11 to 14% and points usually don't exceed 4.  

Historically the ROI exceeds virtually every other RE buy n hold market in the us.  

As you suggested, you could run into issues if the funds escrowed exceed the actual cost of repairs.  

How do you address the additional requirements in Texas for a rent to own deal that exceeds 180 days ?

We're also thinking about using a VA loan to finance the home.Our downpanyment can exceed 20% but it will all depend on how much cash flow we can generate.Any advice/opionion is appreciated.

Industrial on 14 acres the cost of environmental remediation alone could exceed your purchase price.

I kept their entire deposit but their damage exceeded the deposit but not by that much.