With your combined income and the debt you listed, you should easily qualify for a loan.    

I think there's lots of variables and that I care more about where yields are going to be in 5 years than where they've been the past 5 years (for buy and hold).But, anything you put together that helped me compare different areas more easily than looking at raw census and raw area government data would be interesting.

I would think the fact, that you may be staying somewhere else, in the same city, many nights, would not be seen as something that eliminates the primary residence status, since you're not renting out your unit to someone else. 

Banks are able to give out commercial loans more easily then personal mortgages.

I was always fascinated by seeing something being made possible from just an idea on paper.I am hoping this website will provide me with a wealth of invaluable information and advice as I work to be a real estate investor.My very first project (which I'm still in the planning stages of) is my first home which I will use as my springboard/dive in to real estate investing and construction: I am hoping to buy a house in its foreclosure/short sale stage or a fairly run down property and subsequently "remodel" (but really rebuild) from ground up.My budget is tight and could be bordering unrealistic for the type of house I want and the neighborhood I'm looking at, but I don't give up too easily and believe that if I ask enough people enough questions, I can just about make it :)Anyway, that's me!

@Megan Wilson If your question was easily answered, lawmen would be out of business.

Make them see that you are eliminating their headache.  

A good tech can make over $100K a year easily if they are clean cut and act like a decent person.   

I was thinking of converting each room into a separate rental and my market will allow for 400+utilities quite easily.

I would suggest you either prescreen people a bit over the phone before scheduling a showing time (asking questions about pets, income, and credit score eliminates 75% of the callers right there) and then confirming with them an hour or so before the showing (tell people if you can't reach them to confirm an hour before the showing time, the showing is cancelled), or, just publish a rental open house times like 7-9pm Wednesday night and 11-1pm Saturdays.