Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Plus new folks do a very poor job of screening the buyer for Ability To Repay (ATR) which involves pulling full doc and calculating the borrowers DTI, honest income, honest debt payments, prior debt payment histor (FICO) etc etc.Plus shockingly (or shocking to sellers) if you bought this investment house, fixed it, then are selling with financing you are selling "inventory" and y9ou owe taxes on the gain in the year of sale, you are NOT able to use installment sale to spread out paying taxes. 

Have your closing docs out and know what ratio the county assessor applies to land value (ie 300k assessed value, $50k land =1/6). 

Whether it's considered an arm's length transaction is debatable, but it's not illegal.Move forward with the sale and ensure full transparency with all involved parties, including your CPA.

I suspect, as more and more leasing-related disputes are occurring involving credit cards, the companies have already figured out their method of handling these claims.

Not that it cant or wont, but unlikely.If OP applies for homestead on a new property, then I personally would not lie during the application about receiving the exemption on the existing property.

Of course, every owner's situation is unique and factors like the legal entity involved, purchase date, adequate passive income that can be offset with the cost segregation study, etc., will need to be considered.

If so, do I use my personal bank account to apply for a loan or do I need to put money in the business bank account? 

@Ben CallahanRecommend 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?

Father can assist with some functions, but I guess the more he's involved the more one could argue that he needs a license.