Additionally, do you have any other ideas or strategies that might help achieve his goals without incurring a tax liability?

I'd be willing to do small projects for free to spread some goodwill.

Quote from @Mani Sundaresan: If I’m financing a rehab project with a hard money loan, do I still need to issue 1099-NEC forms to my contractors—given that the funds come from a loan, which isn’t taxable income?

Yeah my goal is around 30% but its hard to achieve, especially using a hard money loan.

If you want to see an example of one of our projects, here is the airbnb link:https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4...Hope I can help!

Large Metros get this.You should be looking in growth markets which have higher cap rates - but the future projection is they will decrease.Mid-west for instance. 

There are two types of return from a rental propertyCash Flow & Appreciation.I normally also aim for a minimum of 8% return between Cash-Flow and Appreciation.Appreication, nationally, is around 2% to 3% annually.Therefore, your goal is to get the cash-flow to be about 5% to 6%.The issue is interest rates being very high, you would therefore, need to buy at a pricepoint where the numbers still make sense.You can always put down more of a downpayment to cash flow, but that will impact your cash on cash return calculations.Best of luck!

Once you're ready, create a goal (e.g., "I will buy at least one single-family home, duplex, triplex, or fourplex before the end of 2019") and then do it.

This is typically for most people not a DIY project. 

My goal, over the next five years, is to utilize real estate in lieu of my current hourly consulting income, by building a portfolio of rentals.