Is it owned or are you renting it?

What started off as primarily a second home with the possibility of short term leasing quickly flipped to a STR first and a second home when not rented because demand is so strong right now for STR's in this area. 

You are interested in a certain market to use the BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat) method to purchase property.To find these properties, you asked how many Realtors you would contact in that area.Honestly, most Realtors do not speak investor language and are not investors themselves.

Living in one unit and renting out the others allows you to deduct 75% of expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, and shared repairs as rental expenses, while the remaining 25% applies to personal use.

Risks: rates go down and you have to pay a prepay of 2 or 3 %; you have to sell and pay the prepay; rents decline & you can't make the payment like any other type of loan; cost upfront a little more than conventional; need to find experienced broker licensed in the state where subject property sits; servicers are bulldogs. 

When it comes to these types of auctions by the sheriff, is there a waiting period that must be observed before rehabbing/renting the building post winning the bid?

Another thing to consider would be a multifamily property so that you could use the other tenants' rent payments as income.

At annual rent increases, I do scour Zillow for market rents in the area, which I share with my tenants.

We never collected any money for rent from anyone. 

We bought this rental in the fall and had it rented.