Sounds like you have a good understanding of the strategy.I normally work with clients by giving them a price range of a property they need to buy to get to their desired tax bracket.Best of luck.

If you're already pre-approved, I would recommend verifying that your lender can service a non-warrantable condo and is keeping the loan in-house.It's completely normal to second-guess a decision like this—there's always some speculation involved.

Use that number as your comparison for what it would cost if you bought a multifamily rental.Second, mortgage rates are higher than they were (and more where they'd normally be, the last ~15 years had them artificially low) and house prices are higher, so don't look at what people did 10 years ago. 

So rent to a normal instead of s8

Normally I'm not a fan of selling, but I would ask if this property cash flows.

I normally buy and hold but this happens to be a flip I did, so this is fairly new to me.

Forecast every possibility that could go wrong....I'd consult with a very good attorney and an accountant who specializes in real estate investment as they normally have seen every scenario possible. 

Is my experience normal?

I have had this situation come up several times this year, in multiple states, Lenders want to have the borrower have skin in the game at this point in time. 

Is property management normally part of this arrangement?