A CPA I met with discouraged us renting it and encouraged classifying it as a home office to get a $1500 tax credit.

However, the SEC will also classify a security as a promissory note or profit sharing agreement.

A good accountant will be able to classify your properties based on their merits, as opposed to a single classification for your business.In other words, if you have 10 properties, 5 of which you flip and 5 of which you are holding as investment, your CPA should be able to get half the properties taxed at long-term capital gains (investments) and half taxed at ordinary income (dealer).Without a good CPA, you run the risk of your entire business being classified as "dealer" and paying higher taxes on all properties.Also, your CPA will recommend how to structure your business entities to support the way he will be claiming the income to the IRS when he does your taxes.

Lots of ink (sic) has been spilled on this subject, and he is missing/disregarding significant information in his analysis. 

@Dan Dunmire I suppose this is possible, but for that to work the house would have to be classified for taxes as an investment and not a flip (active business), right?

Finding deals consistently can be achieved through due diligence in mailing campaigns, knocking on doors, and ads in classifieds. 

With this type of financing (LPMI), the lender blends the premium into the rate, thus classifying the PREMIUM as regular INTEREST and not an additional premium. 

Are these small multifamily properties classified as SFH, or multifamily in the MLS?

Build rapport and see if that investor gives out referral/finder fees for properties that you locate for them - You can always advertise your services in the the newspaper classified ads section

Make sure you list when tenants can call you and what classifies an emergency unless your lease specifies the same and when they can contact you (Tip: use a Google Voice #).