Great Post-  I appreciate you saying what a lot of the Gurus fail to explain: that this is a long term process and in a lot of cases we don't see the benefits for years to come. 

It's challenging to find lenders that are willing to be in 2nd position on an investment property, but I called quite a few during the process. 

Do one task at a time in each app so you can compare apples to apples.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.

Even wholesaling or flipping requires contracts, and you're not old enough to sign.There are a lot of young people looking to start, and it would be nice to hear more of your story and how they could follow your process.

But I want to know if anyone has had any luck with the tax appeals process?

You can do the process under an LLC and sell the LLC to a non-profit.

TIAErich  Erich - I would echo other's comments, but also point you in the direction of a Bigger Pocket book, "Estimating Rehab Costs" - It's a 2019 version, so the actual dollar amounts will need to be increased, but it can give you a good starting point for the process that you can refine/update over time. 

Once you have stabilized these properties and feel more confident about the process, you could refinance these and start doing BRRRRs.

There's a lot to be said about this but having process in place to mitigate turns going bad helps.

In the example below, it shows my "Vrbo commission" is 5% and their "payment processing fee" is 3%, so they take a total of 8% (of the nightly rate + cleaning fee + pet fee).