The long-term strategy involves building equity, saving, considering taxes, and leveraging rental income for investments.

FYI the comment was posted before you resolved the issue, I just made an update.

go to lots and lots of meetups.2. talk to those HMLs and find out what their terms are.3. save up enough so that you have a down payment, reserves, and also enough in cash for the hold period. 

You take a short class 30 minutes over the phone and once you finish this process you typically can save around 1% off your rate!

I suspect I (my lawyer) would have gotten this rectified in a week or 2.I am glad this seems to be getting resolved but this was via a fortuitous connection made via this post.  

The build cost would be a little higher because i would use foam in the exterior walls and also use insulation in the interior walls for energy saving and sound dampining.

To be honest starting out seems overwhelming and scary especially considering investing much of savings into a property that may or may not be successful.

If the awnser is better systems, what would be a practical way to resolve a situation like this.

I currently have one property that I have been house hacking for the last year and have saved up for a 2nd investment property.

I am planning on getting into a deal with 0% down VA loan which will save me some upfront capital and can be used for damages and such.