Lewisville (suburb of Dallas) just banned any new STRs for one year while the city studies its effects.

The key is getting a good RE consultant that specializes in no-cost consulting, engineering-based cost segregation estimates, and reasonable study costs who works with your CPA/tax professional.

I studied at Kansas University (being a real Jayhawk!)

What I often see being a mistake is people ordering a cost segregation study before speaking with their accountant to see if it would benefit them on their return.What a cost segregation study does is analyze a property further to identify assets that be classified with a shorter asset life than 27.5 or 39 years.The issue when getting an 'estimate' from a cost segregation study company is that they are not accountants(more specifically not your accountant).

I would want to see as many years budgets as the seller has available and a copy of the most recent reserve study.

From your post, it sounds as if you've exhausted your cash putting 25% on ready-made single-family rental properties.My suggestion to you would be to study the BRRRR method and link up with investors and wholesalers in your area.

I'm still very new to all these concepts I need to study a lot to understand well how to be financially creative in the future for my deals.

Study the market.

What’s the expected cost for a cost segregation study for a $500,000 rental property?

Over the many years, I've seen these things destroy a lot of people.IMO for a short time they provide happy days, but inside them is the shark that will "come a callin' ".As a very conservative investor, these are not on my Swiss Army Knife, but I recognize the Risk/Reward situations they are used for.