1) Know your neighborhood. 2) Know where the money is coming from. 3) Know your goal—both short- and long-term. 4) Offer on a house in your target neighborhood. 5) Pay when accepted or repeat step 4 until successful. 6) If necessary, put together a list of repairs. 7) Complete repairs. 8) List for sale/rent. 9)Sell or rent to a qualified prospect buyer/renter. 10) Save the overage between rent and mortgage in case needed for repairs. 11) Repeat.Don't make it too difficult.

The only way I know of is through a qualified opportunity zone fund- although that tax deferral expires in 2027 - unless future legislation extends it.

@Drake Balma do you need the rental income to qualify for the payments?

You probably don’t know this number unless you have been qualified already

They qualify you based off the cash flow and your credit score, instead of your personal income.

Just be upfront about it and if you still qualify with those additional loans added to your DTI and whatnot, it shouldn't be a problem for most lenders.I had two properties under contract and an ongoing refi on my primary residence all at the same time, all closed within a couple weeks of each other.

(slightly less) With hard money you can always restructure your LLC via an operating agreement, bring on a partner or family member (wife even) with decent credit and use them to qualify.

We are going to open a joint account and put the 10,000 dollars in there, and I am going to live in the duplex so we can qualify for the loan(This is my second investment property, I'm only 18 years old).  

So be wary of a lender saying "yeah, just submit an application and we can tell you what you qualify for"....try someone else if you run into that.Feel free to post anything else if you need.  

But if your REFINANCE step lender sells your loan, not a deal breaker.Usually that REFINANCE step lender needs to count my rental income to help me qualify, give me full value, and have NO SEASONING.