If you don’t know the legal notice requirements for your market make sure you figure all that out before you do anything. 

Steer clear of any 4-figure courses or gurus.

They would be resistant to a short sale. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Post Dodd Frank sellers have continued the same bad practice of selling houses to occupants with financing at selling prices that are way high, can't be justified via any type of 3rd party valuation (appraisal, zestimate, tax value, even recent sales in the same area).   

Figure rates are significantly higher doing this instead of the more straight forward approach.  

However, the depreciation claimed while the property was a rental must be accounted for upon the future sale of the personal residence, which could increase your capital gains tax liability.The adjusted basis of the property (original cost minus depreciation) will be used to calculate gains or losses at the time of sale.

I also figured that when he parents do pass down the road, we could refinance through a bank and pay off the sister her half of the home, while still keeping the house and the rental income.

I forgot to mention another sales tactic is to tell people at the three day class you can charge your investors the 40k tuition.

Kate I see Avalara but from looking at their site it is not clear if they are actually making the payments or are they just helping you figure out the amounts to remit?