Follow all safety requirements your Insurance Company plus city and county require.This usually includes childproof access and alarms.

Short-term rentals (STRs) could work well in vacation-heavy areas, but they require active management—considering a co-host or property manager can help offset time constraints.

If you ask the manager to justify a fee and he starts hemming and hawing, move on or require them to remove the fee.

I'm planning on putting 25% down because that is a requirement of the loan.

So it does appear to be possible to get an FHA 203k loan for a 5-unit & convert to a 4-unit.When possible, aim for the Limited (aka Streamline) 203k loan, as it's less complex, not required to get an FHA consultant, etc.Of course, this is based of the two following important assumptions:1)  zoning allows for this2)  and obviously I owner occupy for at least 12 months3)  the total purchase price + renovations are within the FHA loan limits specific to my areaWhat I'm confused about is the timeline or chronological order of the process? 

I moved to miami and it's tough to do here columbus land is cheap. lower than lenders even require our buyers have to come up with additional equity just to close the loan. not sure austin's economics but happy to look at a case study with you to see if it's feasible 

If your goal is financial independence, then selecting an investment city is a straightforward process due to the income requirements for financial independence.

Many hard money lenders offer loans that include rehab costs, which could be beneficial for your BRRRR strategy.Alternatively, if you find a lender that offers a DSCR loan with a lower down payment requirement, that could be another route to explore, especially if you already have positive rental income history.

Leverage will be reduced from the max available, reserve requirements increased and, typically, you would be required to use a professional property manager.

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.