That's tax free money and if you structure things right you can acces the equity, have a cash flowing asset, and use the depreciation of the home to write off against some of your income.

This is where things became confusing: The title company answered a couple days later that they could not cut a check to the IRS, and that the accounting firm was supposed to cash the check and write another to the IRS themselves. 

I'm not sure of the stats in your area.You have to know how to write up a purchase & sale agreement and open escrow, that kind of thing.

I'm writing an article about first-time jitters in real estate.

You can set your own personal policy for when you install charging but no need to put it in writing in the lease. 

Your best bet is to shop around with a few different brokers as each of them cannot write for all the available companies.Here are a few to check with:TWFG InsuranceRiverlands InsuranceGoosehead InsurancePat LeBoeuf Insurance

From there, you can write checks for whatever investments you want from crypto to real estate.I'd move in and out of some small fix and flips to build the account up. 

Of course write off whatever you can when the time comes and I do not know the ins and outs of what can be written off on a short term investment. 

The California State Farm agent says they can’t write policy for MN property and MN agent says he can’t write policy because I live in California.

Write it all down.Next, what exit strategies will achieve your goals?