Also, I have coached a few agents who wanted to get more heavily into investing and I am happy to share what we found worked easily for them. 

I focus heavily on the sell side and on the buy side only work with high net worth individuals so the newbie wanting a 400k multifamily with an FHA loan probably isn't for me. 

Ownership demand here seems to heavily outweigh tourism demand and i'm struggling to get anything to pencil.  

I have - I know little about them, but have heavily considered

But I will say from the feedback we've been getting from hosts in the Smokies, make sure you run your numbers good and know how to stand out in a heavily saturated market.

I have some flexibility but rely heavily on my team for admin work and the day-to-day operations of property management.

If you use a PM, you are cutting heavily into your profits.

My question is, do I just use the heavily reduced price I was able to purchase it for since it was vacant, and then the material cost of what I renovated plus what things I did contract out, even though that basis would be way under what the other renovated houses that sold near me per SF sold at, or are you able to use similar comps to determine the depreciation basis?

I invest heavily in this area as an agent.

Plus, if you'd like to connect and talk marketing/sales happy to do coffee or something.Also, there are tons of Facebook groups for Chicago real estate.Lastly, just doing some 1:1 networking with lenders, agents, and architects is something we focus heavily on.