No pool needed.As a frequent mountains traveler I will not consider a unit with no view and no hot tub.I am not experienced in Charleston, but from what I know these would be extras and probably not essential for renting. 

Any tips / tricks anyone uses when looking at furnishing designs?

Based on my very limited understanding I would want to leverage my first time home buyer to buy at least a duplex though i would really like to get my hand into a triplex to increase the cash flow while living in 1 unit for a year (lot of tricks and tips here to not have to live in there for a full year which i would like to learn more as well) and lease out other unit(s).

If so any creative tricks to get financing on them?

I also see this frequently around Tarrant County...like mostly Tarrant and Parker where there is a oil/gas lease in place. 

My assumption is $0 rent those months other than a holiday week like Thanksgiving Christmas and Easter, where the projections are showing thousands per month.As a frequent traveler to the area, I cannot imagine much rent revenue in Jan, Feb, March, April, Nov, Dec. 

There will be some giant surprises to many there when you have to start paying engineers for frequent evaluations and making the structural repairs required.   

Currently have a 1/2 acre in Bastrop, TX, and I am looking to build on it sometime later this year. The goal is to build a single family home but I have never done this before, and I am looking for some advice/tips on...

A good trick to achieve this is the return on equity calculation.

Yet, all the members would need to do would be to go look at their archives and look at the predicted gains and check if they occurred in reality and they'd find out easily that my example above is typical.There are countless people in that same situation situation and, in my humble opinion, it's about time that they swallow their pride (for having fallen for their marketing tricks) and speak up so that other people don't have to experience the same situation in the future.