I also do my screening but rely a lot on my gut feeling purely from the interactions with them.

In my state of TN, the standard form says something to the effective of "buyers can not require sellers to make repairs that are solely for the purpose of bringing older houses up to current codes" and "home inspections are not for the purpose of finding items that are purely of a cosmetic nature".

It's a great area for investments...but much more money than I want to start out with until I build much more capital purely for REI.

Subway tiles in shower surround material cost 350$ -Floor tiles 300$ - Purely Cosmetic.I worked in the construction/ new construction/ remodeling field for 6 years shadowing my uncle.

While we buy pure rentals we turn alot of personal properties into rentals.

I was purely just curious.

If the attorney is acting purely as a trustee, then a license is not required but if an attorney is creating the land trust document, then he/she would need to be licensed in that state because that document affects the legal rights of another person. 

Here's the question - Should I work on paying off my current place so that it becomes pure cash flow in ~10 years, or should I save up to purchase a duplex in a cheaper part of the country that I can live in half of and house hack? 

Purely based on LTV using new appraised value. 

The other consideration is that not all returns here are purely deal by deal monetary.