Now years later, I rarely, if ever, buy real estate from the MLS because of those connections I made.  

If they are truly investor focused agents there is no reason they would ever be doing an open house.

@Josephine Ramesh,Any updates if you ever pull the trigger on getting a lake front property in Hiawassee?

Good luck on your journey and feel free to reach out if you ever need any guidance or advice

Normally, I'm always opposed to selling anything ever. 

Has anyone ever had this type of an issue and if so how did you resolve it?

I am highly interested in BRRRR and House Hacking since I do not currently own a home at all and would be purchasing my first property ever. 

The reason I ask you this is because if you’re overseas for several years, that is potentially wasted time as time is the most valuable resource you won’t ever get back.

For your first one, I would consider looking at markets such as Lubbock, San Marcos, and even smaller communities around San Antonio.I can't speak for the other markets, but here in Lubbock we are seeing a higher sales velocity than we've ever seen before.

When it is a new development, it isn't uncommon to see someone use the date the Certificate of Occupancy was issued - perhaps that marks the "ready", but it still might not be "available".So you can certainly have a property in service in a given year, but not actually have any rental income - but certainly your facts and circumstances are much better if you can actually get a tenant in there, that (should) shore up your defense on that question ever coming up unless you are playing weird games just to get a given in service date for tax purposes.