Hard money could close within the timeline, but it would best suit you if there is a rehab component to the loan.

There's multiple components of this business, and successful investors don't try to do everything themselves.

@Ahmed Elias the structural component would be the only major concern.

Improving a credit score is another key component and you're tackling that as well. 

Instead of taking the depreciation over the standard number of years, you send in an army of qualified professionals and they go and look at each part of the building and make a guess at how many years each component has.

It seems housing has a component of "leverage" that has many folks bypassing my savings rate while spending more.GoalsMy goals are 15-20 years from now (mid-50s) to be able to retire early, have fun, while maintaining a lifestyle and income. 

Since land is excluded from the depreciation value anyway, if I pay 300k for a townhome with .3 acre lot vs 340k on a .15 acre lot, the schedule shouldn't matter too much or am I missing some key components?

A very important component is this gets the listed unit rents at full market instantly, so if/when there is a vacant unit you wont have the mess of some tenants way under market making it years until you get to full.

I definitely want to create a for-profit entity that has a giving component, similar to TOMS.

If you want some sort of rental component to your primary residence, you can always house hack with a rent-by-the-room model or find a place with a basement apartment or carriage house out back.