Depending on your circumstances and the term of the student loans - I would recommend using the cash to finance real estate and pay off the student loans through normal payments. 6% interest is not bad at all - if you can find properties that net exponentially more in return then your loan interest - you would be doing well. 

It's good to see upper 4s and lower 5s are more 'normal' than the record lows of 4-4.5% being reported by some.

Many of the common BP seller financing methods just don't normally apply to OC.

Some of which include:Debt ServiceInsurance (proper STR insurance - not a standard fire policy)Taxes (both normal property and STR taxes)VacancyCAPEXElectricity, Cable, InternetFurnitureSheets, towels, etcCleaning/maintenance Gardening/lawn-care Etc.Im sure I missed a few - but you get the point.

Normally I hold long term, but taxes are high here.

My first tenant is moving out and it is not going smoothly.There seems to be a lot of excessive damage to the house and I want to know what is normally considered excessive damage.Is there a standard listing of typical excessive damages in rental properties?

Isaac, I do a ton of multi units, so I can say with experience that if you're buying your 1st place, occupying, and it's in the city, 5% is almost definitely what you can do unless there's something we're missing here. 25% is the minimum for an investment/non-owner occupied property. 20% is the normal down payment for owner occupied...but in your case, based on above details, you should be able to do 5% down.

Normally you can go to at least one for free or if they have lunch meetings, those are normally free.

So I just want to confirm that it is normal practice to put in a lot of offers, sight-unseen.

Works like a normal satisfaction.