The private markets can deny a property based on the property location (I don't think they would care if you are the new owner or existing owner).The number of units does matter to which NFIP classification:1. 1-4 family2. 5+ units3.

@Bruce Woodruff - those are multi family (4+) on a commercial grade water heater with appropriate commercial use zoning and classification (and thus subject to a different set of inspections / compliance) vs. a single family going to a duplex.

*Don't allow financing or a finance contingency (it can be a good indication they are selling above market value) *Don't allow for your own independent property inspection *Are not realistic with their pro forma's (i.e. they don't include vacancy or maintenance projections or use unrealistically low vacancy factors) *Require you to pay for any renovation upfront *Sell only in cheap. low end neighborhoods *Don't accurately represent the neighborhood/property classification *Don't have consistent rehab standards for all properties *Don't provide a scope of work for the property *Can't provide references of repeat investors 

You need to have provable experience at a journeyman level or higher for minimum 4 years, have someone with the same license classification sign for you, and pass a very difficult 4 hour trade and law exam (pass rate of 1 in 12 or 8%).All the studying in the world is great for you and I suggest taking in all you can get.

Every City and County have different rules and classifications.

The factors that usually go in to a classification are owner occupancy rate, home prices, home sizes incomes, and crime levels.

When I researched this carefully a few years ago, I ran across some guidelines for use by auditors to try to disprove this classification ("real estate professional") that basically said "rental property management is easy, anyone who makes this claim based on managing a few properties is lying."

@Michael C Williams is correct in that many places in San Francisco convert the ground level garage and storage areas into legal dwelling spaces (ADUs), but IMHO these are not the best properties to hold long term as it changes the classification of a property from a SFH to a multi unit.

In a Cost Seg feasibility analysis the bottom line doesn't count all that much.In fact, your actual ROI on a Cost Seg Study may be higher or lower than illustrated on a Cost Seg feasibility study.Ya see, the actual tax and financial benefit you get from doing a Cost Seg varies based on a number of factors that are outside the scope of cost seg cost allocation and asset classification.👉 What portion of the purchase price gets allocated to land?

This is just another quasi-classification to make new investors think it's easy.