Hi Christopher,Simplest way.

In service means "ready and available" for rent.In simplest terms, ready means livable; available means advertised for rent.The key is, it has to be both ready AND available to be placed in service and, therefore, to deduct most of your rehab costs as operating expenses instead of capitalizing and depreciating them over time.You can advertise a house you gutted down to the studs all you want, but there's no chance the IRS will support that being "livable".But yes, it is very important to advertise ASAP, as soon as the property is in living condition.

House hacking is the simplest way to gain two or three properties very quickly.

David Green recommends this method as the simplest strategy to build rental property portfolios. 

What’s the simplest way to do that?

I understand that if you're working with a debt lender, it's essentially similar to borrowing from a bank.Could someone explain to me in the SIMPLEST way possible, how the equity process works?

It opens you up to all sorts of potential issues.The simplest solution is offer him a contract at market rent, and then hope he moves out.  

That has a few vital ingredients: knowledge, someone you REALLY trust and the loan documents. 

I think this may be the simplest way to create the type of deal you are thinking about. 

Yet private money for the inexperienced rehabber seems to be the most elusive ingredient.