You’re welcome, Scarlett. Interest-rate levels, price levels and a “comfortable” amount of available cash for a downpayment and reserves rarely, if ever, happen all at the same time in a person’s lifetime.
I was a single parent earning under $50K per year when I purchased my current home 10 years ago. The prevailing fixed mortgage rate at the time was about 7.25% and this did not concern me at all. I do not regret this purchase today.
From your posts, the way I see your situation, your current tradeoff (to be a successful buyer in today’s 5% fixed rate mtg mkt) is to focus on properties where the bulk of the sellers have the ability to assist you, so you can keep back some cash reserves (and feel more comfortable about a home purchase). The way to successfully find that seller is to widen your consideration to properties more than 30 years old. The more “superficial” interior updating a property needs, the more likely the seller may be willing to help you purchase it, IMHO.
After you conduct a plat-map study in one of these older micro-areas of your choice against a newer tract micro-area of interest, I think you will find the older areas to be far less prone to dipping in value in the future (below what you paid) and their locations infinitely more convenient for your purposes.