I’m local to the area and have a few good insurance contacts that may make the difference for you. 

The dish washer sounded like it was at or near the end of its life anyway.

The only two ways to rectify this are (1) purchase the property far below market price or (2) significantly increase the property net income usually through some method of “repositioning”. 

Like accidentally leaving the car light on in the car and having your car battery dead in the morning.

The IRS won’t allow this as a legitimate deduction.No Tax Benefit from Self-RentEven if you set it up through an S-Corp (which is more complicated), the rent payments you make would be taxable income to the S-Corp.

Here's a post I made on "non-conforming" vs "illegal/unpermitted", understand they are NOT the same thing.

All the best to you during your last semester.Househacking is one of the most common routes for new investors in NY.For best returns, I'd recommend focusing on South and Southeast Queens, Central and Southeast Brooklyn, and the Bronx.There are parts of the suburbs (Westchester and Long Island) that have househack opportunities but the property taxes are higher and the commute time to NYC is longer.Abel

Some people may go higher end, but naturally it depends on the property and neighborhood.

Quote from @Dinesh Nair: I am a Canadian investor with a US corporate entity- we closed on our first property and now working to find financing through a lender… however rates keep changing all the time.. is there a site to track rates ? 

The fact is, newbies or scammers are not the only ones that go to meetups and networking groups.