When new to investing we tend to focus almost exclusively on profit potential with almost no consideration of risk.  

Another thing to take into consideration is that your tenants will be paying down the mortgage every year building you equity in the property.

I do know that very few municipalities won't require egress and life safety considerations.

That severely limited the number of lenders I could go to, so I ended up finding a loan product (that costs a premium, albeit) thru Velocity Capital Mortgage that allows fully-amortizing or IO payments (for first 10 years) which will help me build cash flow and accrue title seasoning while I find the right time to pull the trigger on a fully-amortizing DSCR product Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

With a 10% down payment, you can still leverage your savings effectively while keeping some liquidity for reserves and future investments.FHA Considerations: If you're considering another FHA loan, keep in mind the FHA rules regarding primary residence occupancy requirements.

I’m really early into the research phase but would be prepared to “pull the trigger” over the winter (eg purchasing a property to setup the tents) but ran into a bit of a “wall”.I’m pretty close to Blue Ridge and love the area so have considered a STR there for a while.  

Note: I've had plenty of tenants state their credit score is xx and it turns out to be considerably lower.

Hey Paul, congrats on pulling the trigger on your first property.I'm also in CA (on the central coast) and invest out-of-state (Detroit).

If you have a mortgage on the property and transfer it to an LLC (the LLC would be a different owner) it could trigger a due-on-sale clause.

The strategy you're referring to could work in principle, but there are a few important considerations.