Best advice is to put together a budget with a goal toward affording your first acquisition.

As for how they afford this warranty, I speculate that PPR can offer this warranty because performing notes are a small portion of their overall sales (I get the impression from their website that they mostly sell non-performing 2nds).

I am currently being paid via severance and once this expires I can not afford a long and slow ramp up. 

There is no trick to lowering that number, just use common sense and allow an affordable payment for the borrower instead of being a greedy jerk.

The HOA is the wildcard and in my case they are very stable and affordable.  

Since prices are more affordable up there, most higher-end locals will just buy a house.

I need some advice on where to look for properties I'm having a hard time finding houses I can afford, also is it a good idea to live in and fix then flip?

Its a nice little town, with not much going for it, but pretty stable area with alot of affordable properties.

I am a Graphic Designer here in Indianapolis, and Graphic Design has so far been a good career for me for the past 10 years, but like many during the great recession I was furloughed at my job for several years and made only 80% of my normal income during that time. 4 day work weeks were nice, but my wife and I had a very hard time economically during those couple years, we still managed to save money and meet the bills, we had to put off alot of things that we wanted to do but couldn't really afford.

James, Mike This is the best explanation of the help to buy scheme https://www.gov.uk/affordable-home-ownership-schemes/help-to-buy-equity-loans Brandon I shall check that out, your guides make good reading.