I read that California and Florida have different rules than most of the country.

I don’t care how you want to try and justify or rationalize it, it is what it is.  

Have a really good landlord/tenant attorney on speed dial, strong lease agreement, train your tenants the rules and regulations and don’t bend the rules for anything !

Are you sure there is no exception in that rule for owner to manage themselves?

It's the equity I wanted and it almost meets the 1% rule,  which is almost impossible here in the beautiful and growing Wenatchee area.The rehab. 

You will sleep well st night knowing you are playing by the rules and being the bigger person.

Every state has their own rules.

My rule when I buy for appreciation has been "could I still make the payments if 2008 happened again and I had no W-2 job?"  

I would ideally want to do what is typically done in a BRRRR strategy using a conventional loan, however I'm not sure if FHA loans have different rules, or if it varies from lender to lender.

I avoid hickory hill, frayser, 38127 and orange mound as a general rule of thumb