It requires hard work, strategy, and a willingness to take on projects others might overlook.

Once you hit a certain number of loans (check with your state dept of banking and finance or dept of business regulation), they might require you to have a license.

@Anthony Saheed I would advise you to be very careful to recommend people to speculate in volatile real estate markets.

For example, a property in San Diego may lose $500 per month ($6,000 per year) but gain $60,000 per year in value, making it worthwhile to "lose" money each month in exchange for long-term gains.I recommend you start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

In short, I can afford the additional $1100/mo cost of a second house, even until I rent it out.I have around $35K in HYSA and emergency funds that I could use for a down payment, but that's less than 20% which would be required for a conventional loan, assuming full purchase price.

I’m hearing they require higher down payments though.

A lot of the popular areas in Charleston proper that are not licensed under the old laws now require the owner to live on the premises to obtain an STR license.

They are currently 10 weeks, and required before you can make a permit application for a house. 

I recommend you hire an attorney for this until you know the process well enough to do it alone.

Depending on how it is done and what guarantees the government offers and requires of the released entities, interest rates could move slightly higher.