It is like a credit card in that, if you have a zero balance then it does not count against you.

Fortunately they will usually count retirement accounts towards that total, so TSP or an IRA would probably count (although anything invested won't be counted at face value, they'll do a % of the total to protect against a down market hurting those reserves).

Second, if I had to live in the property for a year before renting, would it still count if I lived there but also rented it out (rent out rooms)?

If I have my NJ-based lender check my credit by April 11th will it still count as a check for the same "type" of loan (even though it's for a different mortgage) or will it count as a 2nd hard inquiry?

I count those items, and the amounts really are looked at by the age of the property, any deferred maintenance, market vacancy rates etc...

Since it doesn't look like we will be out of a seller's market in the area any time soon you can likely count on at least a little bit of appreciation in the next few years.

That could trigger the IRS to not count the sale as a true 1031 exchange.

You should not charge rent based on tenant count, it is discriminatory. 

If you ever have a liability issue where the protections of the LLC would save you, I would not count on it.

A business day is a day in which you spend at least 4 hours working on business (travel time counts).