I can't count the number of times I have seen investors stumbling over dollars so that they can save pennies in taxes, and in a variety of ways.

@Austin Green cross-reference Airdna and Rabbu to see what the potential revenue could be.

There's no need for me to keep asking for a response because their lack of responsiveness hurts them and rewards me.You aren't going to like every tenant, and should count your blessings that two of them are really good. 

lol not sure what I am getting into this year but always looking. really trying to grow the unit count. i probably won't do a flip.

Quote from @Anil Shah: Quote from @Derek Brickley: Pretty common, you can definitely use commission as down payment conventional loans and not have it count toward IPC as long as you're on the loan. 

In this case, you can use Rental Income from the units that you will not be living in and that income can count to help you qualify.FHA rates are going to be lower than conventional for you almost always, but FHA does have a 1.75% funding fee. 

My question for the group is would my hours as a contractor also count twoards the needed 750 hours?

Once you know what is legal (seeing other listings in a particular area does not count as people do it in illegal areas all the time). 

For example, maybe you will get to 10, 20, 30 houses and then find an owner who has a large portfolio and all of a sudden you are at a high door count and now need to hire, need to build your policy binder, and all the other stuff that comes with running a business.

I think you can't go wrong with a long term rental, but don't count yourself out of STRs because of your location.