Besides the obvious credit, background, and income verification.

Here's some basic copy & paste info that may help you make better investing decisions:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Long story short, you spend a month cleaning and renovating, then you find a new tenant after just 15 days.In total, you lost three months of rent income ($3,000) plus paying utilities ($500).

I have an 8-year plan to build passive income through buy and hold rental properties.  

Conventional financing is a great option to get started if you have a W2 job or easily verifiable income and you're financing a 1-4 unit property.

But with that one lender I found I am not lendable due to not having proof of income for the last two years.

I believe in putting in the work—1,000 hours of research, testing, and learning—before offering advice, and I’m excited to tap into the collective wisdom of this community to refine my approach.Here’s where my head is at: I’m considering strategies like short-term rentals (Airbnb) for higher cash flow, long-term rentals for steady income, or even creative options like house hacking or partnerships to stretch the funds further.

The reason the answer is framed this way is because when you take a HELOC out to make repairs on your personal residence, you are allowed to tax the interest deduction on your Schedule A of your 1040 income tax return.

Our instincts are to eventually rent it and use the income for payment assistance on a new home mortgage.

You can look into low-income neighborhoods usually the properties are of lower value, but I'm not quite sure if that applies everywhere but I know in Florida I see it here and there, and if you need help looking I don't mind helping.i would be wary about REO/HUD owned properties as a first time househack.