Buy the property with seller finance & finish it up.Tahoe is a great short rental area

For context, I'm based in the SF Bay Area in CA and looking into buying my first OOS rental after house hacking locally for 10 years.

I’ve also used a HELOC to buy a couple houses.

Quote from @Christopher Stevens: Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

I wouldn't imaging the state where the entity is registered makes a big difference for most buying and selling purposes as long as you can provide all of the required documents for title purposes.

Start saving up and buy your first place.

@Hiyun Park only experienced investors can DIY everything in Class C Midwest areas like Detroit, Cleveland, St Louis, etc.Hopefully the info below will help you:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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?

So you can buy a four flat, live in one unit and rent the other three, but you have to live in one unit on the site. 

I would recommend you look for a good neighborhood to buy a multi family in.

Buy a sofa and keep the sofa bed to keep the extra-capacity, at the risk of cluttering the living room too much?