We buy a house at every duty station that makes sense along with pure investments. 

Pure curiosity: why would you pay to put this money in escrow?

These loans are also being used to finance inventory purchases for business owners, while others may be used purely for their speed of funding.

By some hardcore ( almost pure sulfuric acid) drain cleaner...use every time a tenant moves out....and dont get it on you.

I'm sure it is the same with you, having the focus purely be cash flow, but it is always nice to see how strong of an investment real estate can be when investigating all of the real benefits.

LOL  but then again 40 years and lots of lawyer letters later I may be a little more thick skinned than many.. and for sure I know liablity as opposed to just pure emotion and in this business some of the folks always say you have to take emotion out of it.. getting a lawyer over this is simply an emotional response. 

Keep in mind you will need at least 20% down for a pure investment property if not house hacking. 

Really helps  :) With regards to investing more on areas that also appreciates and not purely on cash flow, I completely agree, and I believe Columbus, OH and Tampa,FL are such appreciation markets.

Is it a pure profit hog?

The ideas that he came up with to pass the strict and rigorous FHA loan inspection regulations and guidelines were of pure genius and of impeccable creativity.