In my opinion, Baldwin County is probably your best bet if you are looking for long term renters instead of yearly turnover.

If not, I’d bet there was no partnership return.Assuming a 50/50 split, you should take half of all income, expenses and profit and report that on your return.

We have bought through this realtor before.I selected a Buyers broker to represent me, versus working with the Owner/Realtor to buy his ground. 

Some sort of owner occupied strategy (house hack or live in flip) is probably your best bet for a first investment.

Your best bet is going to be to join the facebook groups, there are 3 major ones in Lansing.

Typically larger groups have more people splitting the cost and it has not affected us in occupancy versus our close competition.I would maybe be wary if you are in a hyper competitive market or market segment. 

You can also look at the home for the ARV potential.For example how much will it cost to renovate versus the ARV in 6-12 months to then use the equity doing a cash out refinance to buy another property.

Low offer versus high potential.

It is lost on them.One thing is for sure, any lender who can lend with their own capital versus using a warehouse line is going to give borrowers a much more pleasant experience.  

If you're looking to avoid a rather large tax hit, a 1031 is probably your best bet.