Does anyone have any experience with using a VA and still qualifying for the 100 hours of material participation?

Getting a property with no intention of moving in using a primary residence loan is mortgage fraud.You may have to get hard money, or see if the owner can finance.

You want to make your first investment without using a single cent of your own money?

I’m using a conventional loan at 5% down  

I have a series LLC for my rental properties in Utah, but I am not sure how effective it would be for holding a property out of state.2 - I do subject to deals in Utah using a General Warranty deed.

What are everybody's thoughts on using a 401k loan or withdrawal to fund the downpayment?

Its the same process as if you were using a bank but the money is coming from another entity or person and not a bank.

That is a small kitchen so looking at less than 10k all in, the flooring 7-8k if you are using a life-proof style LVP and drywall/paint about 5k based off your SF.

Leverage Your Equity: Consider using a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or a cash-out refinance to access your equity.

Tenants save money when using a shared meter, so there's plenty of room for error when calculating how to distribute the charges.