We had planned to invest in one area until the military transient nature showed us another option.

Naturally giving them a disadvantage, which is not necessarily fair. 

I have lived in 12 houses and 2 countries (Born in Scotland lived there till I was 12) and through that I have had a natural interest in how it works and it really sparked my interest in the financial side of things. 

Same thing with a repair person.Usually investors that are not institutional in nature by these smaller buildings.

So naturally, my ROIs are >average, but there are greater than average costs of ownership...

Our goal is to use the transient nature of my husbands job to invest in real estate.

Our goal is to use the transient nature of my husbands job to invest in real estate.

@Vicki Stewart The following link is a really good e-book for Estimating Rehab Cost.Your fear of getting the rehab cost wrong is natural, unfortunately you only get better with experience and experience comes with making mistakes.Believe you me, I make them all the time.

Our goal is to use the transient nature of my husbands job to invest in real estate.

With a single family home dwelling, you can't divide the personal use.I'd guess that your attorney and accountant are compromising to the desires of the two partners more than what might be the most proper or correct approach, that any issues that might actually arise can be addressed due to the nature of the long term personal relationships between the partners, the probability of some matter not being resolved might be low and the risks acceptable.