Our plan is to use the "Sneaky tactic" and for the next few years, the plan is to buy a house that needs a little TLC, fix it up as we live in it and move on to buy another house until were tired of doing it or reach a decent income.

First of all treating rental income as a hobby is a very bad idea. 

It's also worth speaking with a local real estate agent to identify the best neighborhoods for rental income potential.

How would I go about getting approved with no income history?

I planned on using funding for investing with the rental income. 

@David YoungRecommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Metro, the rising median household income and population growth in the D.C.

We also looked at it as a place to escape America if we ever needed to and if our jobs went sour, we still had income coming in.

Quote from @Melanie Baldridge: In 2025 the bonus depreciation rate is 40%.This means that if you bought a property for $1M in 2025, did a cost seg study and found $300K in eligible assets that you could depreciate, you could take 40% of that $300K as bonus depreciation to offset your income in the first year.40% of $300K = $120K.You then apply that $120K to the owner’s personal tax rate to find the final amount that they can defer in year 1.If your tax rate is 37%, you can defer $66.6K.This is a big deal even at the 40% bonus depreciation rate this year.It’s a massive benefit 

Rise48 is raising preferred equity at a valuation that is not market, with income growth projections that are unreasonable, and putting $7,000,000 of new investor cash back in their pockets... $7,000,000!!