There's a few different ways to focus on a lower rate such as with house hacking and making the investment your primary residence, requesting a significant closing credit from the sellers for standard rate buy-downs (which I've had great success with recently), or utilizing lenders who offer short term rate lowering solutions such as 2-1 rate buy downs (again, ideally paid for by the sellers).

@Kyle Trotman If you purchased with a hard money loan conventional lenders will require extensive seasoning to utilize the new appraised value for cash out. 

Utilities paid by me or lawn mowing and snow, realtor commission for renting, legal expenses etc.  

Big Banks like Wells Fargo, BOA, Citi, US Bank, and Chase utilize lending programs aimed to service large swaths of depositors.

Most likely raising funds from passive investors would utilize a Reg D 506 b or c safe harbor exemption from registration.  

Not to mention they wrote of over $300k worth of taxes for me utilizing a cost segregation study. 

My goal, over the next five years, is to utilize real estate in lieu of my current hourly consulting income, by building a portfolio of rentals.  

In Chicago you request a CHA Burden sheet and that gross number minus utility allowance will be what you get in addition to making sure bedroom size is adequate.  

Specifically, I’d love to hear about best practices for managing shared spaces, screening tenants, and setting up house rules.Additionally, I plan to split the utilities among the tenants—any advice on how to handle this efficiently would be greatly appreciated!

I talked to a modular home company in my area, and he said to build a 4 / 2.5 2200 square foot home would be 215k, and then foundation and utilities would be another 160k.