There's no reason to look through classified ads or listings...IMO you're just looking for a needle in a haystack.

I understand you have to check with each local county or city zoning department, but was hoping someone might have experience or links to resources that can identify the zones classified to allow containers and/or areas they have built them on more quickly.

Its a protected class here due to it being classified as a medical condition.

I recently did a search and saw that an investor out of New Jersey bought two properties that I would classify as direct competitors.

You can find these in classified ads in the big horse magazines (Practical Horseman, Chronicle of the Horse, Equus, etc).Whatever services he is providing, he is running a small business so as mentioned, small biz rules apply overall.

You need to reach out to the building inspector, they will need to classify the house and you will need to provide them plans for the additional unitI highly recommend calling the town before you do anything... 

For what it's worth the following is a line item on a standard scorecard from companies that try to put companies "in compliance" in advance before they are sent to lenders://Begin Rating10 points if established profile (5+ accounts), 8 points if established profile (3+ accounts), 6 points if established profile (2+ accounts), 4 points if established profile (1 account), 2 points if established, no credit, 0 points if no profile, -5 points if type of business is indicated as risky in the notes or summary section of the report, -5 points if the SIC/NAICS code is incorrect, -3 points if address and/or phone is inaccurate, -5 points if revenue number is drastically off, 10 points if all data on report matches with provided information, -2 points if a UCC attached to a piece of equipment, -4 points if a general UCC on the business, -6 points if more than 3 general UCCs on the business, -5 points if there are minor credit problems, -5 points if owner/personnel is inaccurate, -5 points if RDR is above 50%, -10 points if RDR is above 75%, -10 points if there are modest or severe credit problems listed//End RatingYou would need to use the scoring above for each of the 3 bureaus cited above as input into your overall score.

If it can be classified as investment, then income / profit falls under capital gains.Once you start the rehab, and sell within a short time, then it more likely will appear as inventory rather than investment; this is more of a gray area than the first scenario I outlined - you might reasonably be able to justify that this was not inventory if your past dealings were all held rather than just sold, and this one sale for profit is just an anomaly rather than the pattern.

For tax deduction purposes should I wait until the house is classified as a rental to do some of these improvements or utilize the next year or so to get it ready as a rental?

Here's the link to my podcast: http://Biggerpockets.com/show65Just for kicks, here's a good way to classify areas:A - good Appreciation but little to no (or even negative) cashflowB - you get Both appreciation and cashflowC - you get Cashflow with little to no appreciationD - you get cashflow but with tenant Drama and property Destruction (or Depreciation)F - war zone: you're "F***ed up"