@Sarah Kensinger I agree that many parks out west lack housing, but they are either too remote, lack the requisite visitation numbers, or are just too expensive.

The #1 way real estate investors defer taxes to later dates is with a system called depreciation and bonus depreciation.Depreciation is the act of slowly, over time, deducting the initial expense of an asset against your taxable income.Generally over a 27.5 (residential) or 39 (commercial) yr time frame.So each year you can write off a few percent of the purchase price against your income. 

Torn between using my VA loan or use my investment property below to help fund my deal.Been losing deals left and right due to the owner occupied rule with VA.I have about 30k in savings, 30k retirement fund, no debt, low expenses (living with parents until find a place)I Own (under my name) a 5 unit mixed use building (4 residential, 1 commercial) fully occupied.

Only one bank account needed, but you'd have to track income & expenses to do transfer and year-end accounting.As @Nathan Gesner mentioned, not really worth it.You two could also open a joint bank account for collecting rent and pay expenses, just be sure to track everything.Do NOT do what @Paul De Luca stated about transferring title!

Trying to do renos with someone living there will only cause problems: long to get renos done, disruption for the tenant and more expensive in the long run. 

Subtract any expenses (for example, we provide welcome baskets for our guests and we pay for them rather than charging our owners).

I haven't bought a 2-4 unit with the VA loan yet (been living in expensive markets lately) but I will as soon as I exit the military in the next couple of years!

While the 100% is out there, it is usually very expensive and most certainly is not a fit for every investor for every deal. 

@George Bell my LLC's do two main things:1) Hide my identity, so tenants can't easily find me. 2) Separate my business and personal assets, income & expenses, not so much for tax purposes, but to avoid IRS issues.-- Just audited by IRS this summer for first time ever and had no issues!

(Some of us have more than one...)So here you are.Your first step should be to get the facts and then reassess your options.You'll need realistic and accurate estimates of your ARV, your remaining repair expense, market rent, and total projected holding costs.If you run your numbers and you can still make this work as a rental, then great!