You want to minimize taxes.Not only these are separate goals, they can pull you in opposite directions, so you will have to prioritize. 

Hi Alex,Like my colleague mentioned, you could either purchase the property from your grandmother, but would need down payment / reserves to support loan requirements or have your family add you to the title of the property to meet minimal seasoning underwriting guidelines to refinance the loan in your name. 

Otherwise, renovate the garage into a man cave, while keeping the garage elements to easily convert back with no or minimal cost in the future.

They kept giving me nonsense about what the delay was but the crux of it was that I ended up having to pay it myself to keep from getting a tax lien put on my property and settle up later out of escrow.

Our lease has a clause that says the tenant is liable for all consequential damages that result from delayed reporting of any defect at the property.

The unit we currently live in would rent for the same amount minimally, most likely a bit more.

Go for the desirable locations in the city and if you’re investing from out of state or country my recommendation would be to stick with properties that require minimal rehab. 

You could do delayed purchase financing, this would allow you to refi without the seasoning but you would only be able to pull out 80% of what you paid + 80% of your completed rehab.

Minimal backstory.  

Due to current market interest rates, I have a possibility of minimal cash flow with a vinyl property however with the brick property, I'm barely even breaking even.