My main goal right now is to learn the ins and outs of the industry, and purchase my first property before the start of 2018.On the reading list right now is:The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing (Brandon Turner)The Miracle Morning (Hal Elrod)The Book on Rental Property Investing (Brandon Turner)Since these first posts are more meant as an Ice breaker, I'll throw out that my favourite kind of ice cream is vanilla, because it pairs with toppings so well, and tastes good by itself.

@Mike S. have you actually spoken to any of them?

Unfortunately - for lack of historical perspective - since LLCs shave been around, interest rates have been going down; if this situation changes, lenders may start exercising the wording in the contracts.

People want to be able to walk to the ice cream shop , the corner pizza shop and post office .

@Steve Vaughan  also very much depends on where in the US it is.. and what your tenant base is..some tenant bases around the country are peach's and cream and not tough on property and pay on time.and rarely does  a unit go vacant one moves out 3 to 5 days to clean and turn it another moves in.in other parts of the country tenants move a ton.. are tougher on the homes.. bigger credit risks IE don't pay and it can take more money to turn them over  and longer time finding new tenant.. so it depends.. but 50% is a good rule of thumb if your having to hire it all out that's for sure. 

My thought was to have one splash of color in the kitchen (the counters), and do neutral colors (white, gray, ivory, cream) in the rest of the kitchen.

I will use existing rental income and income from my other business (ice cream shops) to fund the repairs needed.

This, to them, was to shave costs and increase profits.

When looking for someone to rent a room you won't get the cream of the crop in most cases.

I do not know how beneficial it might be to you but you might consider reviewing your entire project and see if there isn't somewhere you can shave off $500,00 worth to cover the cost of having a contractor buy the permits.