Kind of piggybacking off this same notion but I have a permitted shed in the back of my duplex that would make a great studio apt. 

This is why we network with other real estate investors - kind of like what you are doing here!

Either way, after five years, I can say I achieved a certain level of passive income—just not the kind that puts cash in my pocket.

Quote from @Devin James: In one of our development projects, the City staff asked us to remove 40 units from our concept plan.This wasn’t requested by the City Commission at a formal hearing, it was the opinion of the staff.Our original concept already proposed fewer units than the current zoning would have allowed.Here’s what erasing 40 units means:- 40 fewer homes for buyers- Over $1M in lost profit for our team- Fewer tax dollars and impact fees that could’ve benefited the City’s infrastructure & servicesWe gotta get betterEveryone wants more affordable housing, but not everyone wants to do what it takes to achieve it we never listen to the recommending bodies. we move for city approvals and work closely. the other thing we do is keep going back to the same groups over and over and over and over every month on the same agenda and make very small reductions like 2% or 4% and that reduces and beats them down eventually they accept what you want. it's just before beating a dead horse. we keep tabling until they give us something we all agree on then we go to vote. in our city in columbus we have to get recommendations but that's our strategy. we used to come out as aggressive as possible. we typically study developments in the area and keep it very similar in terms of density. we have a track record of very controversial projects and litigation and not taking no as an answer. after a year of that haha I can tell you it's not worth it. now we are more relationship based and buying the right kinds of plots of land. if the numbers don't work on the front end don't do the development. 

That’s kind of what we’re trying to decide. 

Any local bank that does this kind of financing should be able to approve you as long as you have a good enough credit score and never declared BK.

In the last few years, they've made illegal:-Rent controls of any kind-Limiting of fees or screening charges-The ability of HOAs to regulate STRs or LTRs in their neighborhoodThat's just the start.

Kind of.  

New investor here trying to stay in my local market (Dayton, OH).Since I've started looking for my first deal I've come across a few section 8 properties that seem to pencil, but I'm a bit loath to jump into that kind of deal.

This seems to be breaking down new construction and is a national average so kind of hard to read into this what it means in general but I would not expect a 665k new construction house to be my target for a rental property.