When structuring a deal, what might work for one person, may not work for the other.

Don't talk yourself into a place because of personal use.Buying a $475k condo that brings in 35k in gross rental income will lose a lot of money.

But I think any experienced investor would agree that if you aren't doing value-add when it comes to real estate investing, you aren't actually investing.

Not sure if they have upgraded to desktop appraisals but if they are still doing in person appraisals , make sure you get everything (scope of work, good faith deposit, social, LLC docs, insurance, proof of prior experience, financial statements) in ASAP.

Whichever strategy you choose, ensure you're adhering to IRS rules about prohibited transactions and working with experienced professionals to structure deals properly.Regarding non-recourse hard money lenders in San Antonio, I don’t have specific recommendations.

We have done it both ways where we fund purchase and they cover rehab but if the individual is less experienced we do not do it that way, we have them put more money into the deal from the start and fund the draws, reason why is we also had a deal where the person said they would do this and never did anything and property sat and loan matured and it was a pain.Just recognize you will still not get 100% financing for the purchase, so you are putting money in up front. 

If you have, you have put yourself at great personal risk.Again, I recommend you get a lawyer as soon as possible.

In person is better than over the phone if possible, as I have been told by annoyed or lazy clerks "NO STR allowed" as that was the easy button to get me off the phone, or if they are anti STR. 

@Erica King Sounds like this is more of a personal budgeting concern rather than a real estate one.

The primary residence exclusion is $250k per person on title.