Nothing illegal about doing that, but if caught, the lender may call the loan due and if you don't correct the situation or pay the loan off, they willstart mortgage foreclosure.3) You could also go the HELOC route to tap the equity in the home, but the 12-month owner-occupancy will also apply AND the interest rate on the HELOC will fluctuate with the Fed Fund Rate.4) You could do a cashout refi as an investment property, but that will be at an interest rate 0.5-1% higher than owner-occupied rate.Suggest you meet with 2-3 lenders to explore your options about the above.Once you have access to funds, recommend you buy a 2-4 unit with 20-25% down. - You can buy owner-occupied, live in one unit, and fix up and rent the other unit(s).- If you're handy, recommend buying a property in the worst condition you can tolerate.

Quote from @Ryan Konen: You are correct that comping software like Privy, Propwire, and Propstream primarily rely on public records for their data, such as county assessor records, MLS feeds, and sometimes 3rd party aggregators.

BiggerPockets has some pro tools that let you see rent to price ratios and other cool stats, I use this to check out various markets and which seem to have better/worse profitability.

They must sign the form.The IRS offers an online tool that lets you check if the tax ID the contractor gave you matches the IRS records.

Small is easy to maintain as long as renovations were done correctly.

If it is let me know and ill repost correctly. 

Though many investors bend the rules and possibly don't get caught, you have the financial situation to do it correctly.

Quote from @Zara Massoud: Your new PM is correct and the old ones were wrong.The property manager must have your social security or tax ID number on file.

What property management software or tools would you recommend for tracking rent payments, leases, and maintenance requests?

If you don't do correctly courts will throw it out and you will have wasted a lot of time.Good luck!