Don't rush in to your dream project or bite off more than you can chew.5) There is always another house.

One key thing with this though is you're going to want to avoid biting off projects that you can't chew such as overly long rehab timelines or extraneous debt positions (AKA don't buy a home that the rent amount will just exceed the mortgage and expect no maintenance or surprise costs will happen.)

Get yourself a werewolf type lawyer who will chew them up.  

Property DamagePests can chew through wires, gnaw on wood, and damage the structure of your home or building.

You can't exactly tear a house down or apart to find every 2x4 that may have been chewed on.

Regarding 0 experience in renovations, it might be wise to not bite off more than you can chew.

I’ve heard plenty of stories of CA investors jumping too quick into out of state investing and it almost seems like most people bite off more than they can chew.

It would have been biting off more than I could chew, and I wasn't prepared to stomach the holding costs for an unforeseeable amount of time.

The last tenant's dog also chewed the wooden knobs off the kitchen cabinets and the cabinet faces. 

My idea was as long as we are using this as the primary we would make extra payments because I would rather try and chew down as much as the principle as possible until we can refinance at a way lower rate than what it will be now, have that lower mortgage payment by the time to rent it out, LTR/STR, and be able to receive a greater amount of cashflow.