I will only get one chance to set my real estate foundation, want to make sure I do it as well as possible without suffering paralysis. 

All well and good.

I would go the VA loan if you can, no pmi will help your debt ratio as well.  

We've utilized the VA loan for our current home, and this strategy has worked well so far.

There will always be upward pressure on rents there as well. 

Buying a portfolio might lead you to making decisions you don't have the experience and foresight to make well.

Well I may not be the most seasoned in the world but my wife and I have established processes that work for us. 

I think its working really well.

thanks for your time and help rent to retirement works directly with build to rent developers like us around the country once they are framed up. you are buying properties pretty much at market value but with a hand holding. you can work directly with a builder or directly with them. they are just an intermediary. they take 5% on what we make as a builder but have a large list of investors and a systemized approach to selling new builds. if you want to get a better deal I'd recommend directly contacting builders and building it yourself. fly to the market. spend 2 days, tour new builds, get a feeling for how it's going. if your builder isn't building multiple at a time then I wouldn't recommend working with them. rent to retirement is a well oiled and well run machine. they've had their ups and downs with dozens of transactions in florida but modified their process. they are well known and established and transparent. if you have a more specific market and feel confident in your ability to vet deals try it out. happy to talk more my info is in my signature. we work directly with them to sell new builds and no organization is perfect but I have good things to say about them as a builder and potential build to rent developer that sells build to rent triplexes and single family homes through them to end buyers in California like the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego 

I have been trying toe get a list of the IRS discriminate function indicators to no avail so I'd like to know how you can say that home office no longer concerns IRS.I was just making the note that broad stroke for everyone to add spouse, kid etc to create a partnership has other considerations people need to be mindful of as well.