Even if you temporarily have to carry the full mortgage, your income makes that manageable.

WE did this for go zone tax bene's  which worked well in those years.but the issue comes that keeping nice bigger new homes in great shape just cost more than little rental dingers.. and in fact as i sold them off I had to do 10 to 20k of cap ex on each one to get full market price.. 

If the numbers don't work with it then don't force it and don't rush it.Always ask for full or partial owner financing the answer will sometimes surprise you.We just bought a property with 5k down and owner financing the rest at zero percent.

There is nothing about how long you need to occupy the property for.So unless our lender puts a demand on us I see no problems legally in occupying each property for any amount of time to fulfill the requirement, then rinse and repeating this process up to our full entitlements, so long as the lender is willing to keep giving us loans.

I’d like to buy the place, renovate it, and then live in it for a few years as my primary while renting out the 2/1, and then ultimately selling or renting out the main house too. wondering what the best purchase strategy would be considering I don’t have the full purchase price in cash on hand?

Studies have shown that guests don't want to book for a full week anymore, they'll pay more per night for a shorter vacation of 3 or 4 nights. 

It's a matrix where you'll want to find something that is on the spectrum that is in alignment with your risk tolerance and understanding. 

But as Dominic mentioned this will be full doc Move your liquidity to that bank as deposits are critical to these types of lenders..

You own one truck full of tools and if it gets stolen or breaks down, its now my problem?

This decision effectively reinstates the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements nationwide, pending the Department of the Treasury’s appeal resolution.Click herefor the full article which includes the new reporting deadlines.