Other investors were critical in helping me get started, so I know where you are coming from. 

I'm not being critical and saying it's a bad idea -- I'm just saying that I haven't seen any information about how this works or what kind of experiences people have had with it (or even if people are interested in that kind of thing).

Hey all,I'm completely new to this, so please feel free to point out any mistakes I make.I've been super excited for the past few months at the possibility of breaking into real estate, specifically rentals, and more specifically House Hacking + BRRRR.I have identified 'capital' as my critical path to making this happen. 

Until an 'investor' reaches critical mass (escape velocity) in number of units turning enough profit that even the occasional catastrophe won't  change their life style, it's got to be keep your head in the game and all hands on deck.It's all fun until it's not.  

Other than that, in general terms, you need to learn 3 things:1 - How to analyze Markets...not properties2 - How money works3 - How to develop, and stick to, a REI Business planAll three are critical to your success, and all three are equally important, and in fact, depend on eachother.

The loan would not be for any specific property (this is critical). 

Feel free to be as critical as possible, appreciate it!

This is the reason why I'm having a tough time figuring out how to move forwards and be able to properly analyze deals since the rehab estimate is such a critical part of the equation and I don't want to just be shooting in the dark.

See the image below for the process I recommend (double click the image for full size).The critical success factor is the right tenant.

While AirBNB is certainly imperfect about how they handle resolutions, I think there are some valuable insights here about the necessity of documentation.Putting myself in AirBNB's shoes, photos and invoices are absolutely critical to resolving disputes and damage/expense claims - otherwise, they would be at the mercy of people who wanted to abuse the system and make frivolous or false claims.