As long as it meets "minimum" size standards it can look like a broom closet and be considered a bedroom... ridiculous, but it's out there, and in a tight market people will pay for it... 

A great place to start is https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet which you can use to find like-minded people in your area and every other market across the nation that you may consider.You'll find some helpful tips at https://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere.For tips on how to get the most out of BiggerPockets, check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/biggerpockets-com-tutorial/The BiggerPockets Keyword Alert System is an awesome tool: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/12/1...See you on future threads!

As long as you're filing jointly, both meeting the 2 yr use test, and either meeting the ownership test, then the full $500k can be claimed. 

If you pay more, you won't meet your metrics and will probably have negative cashflow and/or equity.You may have to make 10, 20 or even 100 offers to get one accepted at the price that meets your numbers.This is what all investors did BEFORE the Great Real Estate Crash of 2008-2010.

Perhaps we can meet up one day indeed, I'll be here for a while - feel free to reach out if ever want to grab some coffee!

You will meet a lot of great people here that will help you on your journey. 

In my market, right now, most anything you bought at 70% of value still wouldn't meet that rule.

Thank you, and hope to meet you soon. 

We have an upcoming meeting with them to see how we can extend the loan a few more years to make the total monthly payment including installments for the annual property tax bill, which we’ve had to pay for them this year since they were late the last couple years and had to pay interest to the county. 

Where city meets country and my favorite part.