It just feels like I’ve been making a lot of short term sacrifices for long term gains and I have to be really diligent with money management. or I could also just try to borrow money for the renovation, and pay off the line of credit over time, but I feel like that really would limit me and if the stock market(my collateral) went down I could also see some trouble. 

@Landon Sheveland People do fix and flips while living into the property to classify the property as primary residence and not pay any capital gain taxes. if that is your intention, don't use LLC to establish this as your LLC.If your goal is different compared to what I said above, you can use LLC.

Thanks again for sharing your insights!

Talk to an accountant prior to doing the cost segregation study.You want to discuss whether it will be beneficial or not.In general real estate is considered passive which means that it can't be used to offset other forms of income such as wages, interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.However, there are some exceptions where the real estate loss can offset these types of income.best of luck.

The challenge is, I’m not familiar with the local market—or the Mississippi market in general.Does anyone have insight into the market in this area or know of investors interested in properties in western Mississippi?

Your wisdom and insights would be invaluable to me as I take my first steps in this journey.

But we’re starting to see this program gain traction along the Front Range especially with lower income tenants and properties.

You're spending over $600k (purchase price + rehab + fees) to make $25k, and then you'll have short term capital gains on that...

If anyone has any insights please share!

Knoxville I would consider a different market demographic entirely and I don't have any insight there.I would caution against taking your realtors word at face value.