I will not comment as to the tax laws and underlying rules - that is a discussion you can have with your tax advisor who presumably you are paying to help you.What I will do is provide practical and business guidance on tracking time.Firstly, there are apps available that can assist with time tracking where you can specifically detail your time, who you met with, etc.

If you don’t have a large down payment saved up, don’t worry—there are plenty of options available . . .”A trusted lender will go over the various loan types with you, any down payment requirements on those, and down payment assistance programs you may qualify for.

In a situation where you were doing an arbitrage (renting it from the owner, then yourself re-renting it to someone else) your costs to renovate/fix it up while you're using it would be able to be capitalized and depreciated by you once your rental was in service (available for rent to others). 

Many options available.

However, based on the zip code there are only 5 rentals available in the zip code.

It’s also great that you already have equity in your primary residence and cash available—those are valuable resources for getting started.If you’re considering a multifamily property, house hacking could be a great way to dip your toes into investing while minimizing risks.

Many people opted to stay in their current homes rather than take on new leases, contributing to longer vacancies for available properties.3.

The reason is that one wants to be able to properly avail themselves to the laws and protection of the corresponding state where the property lies.

To put a relatively extreme scenario out there, if you offer 3% more than the next guy in cash (no bank debt) and provided a copy of a brokerage account statement showing the cash was available, I am certain you would get the deal.To echo Joshua's comments: how you are planning on financing the deal is hugely contingent on being awarded deals.  

The lack of short term rental data available to the appraiser concerns me.