They took a long time to respond to emails.As you embark on or continue your business buying journey in the new year, I know you are going to see more opportunities come your way and experience more success if you can remember this lesson.Between 1981 and 1999 I purchased 8 businesses, while also being a part time real estate investor.  

In the real world, its hard if not impossible to get all 4 aspects on a single deal.

As a starting point: -If they work full time and make $700k a year -Don't want to or can't spend time self managing a short-term rental -Don't have a spouse who wants to take the lead on managing the rentals They are likely not going to directly reduce their taxable income with real estate year-to-year. 

It won't take too much time. 

Transcribing transactions from bank statements, posting transactions to the correct accounts, and then manually creating an income statement, statement of owner's equity and a balance sheet is a fairly time consuming process and I have not been able to keep up with the book keeping between my regular work responsibilities.What accounting software do people recommend? 

Read "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene for starters.

By house hacking It lets you get in the game with minimal money down (3-5%), while also covering your mortgage and gaining real-world landlord experience.

@James Anderson, as a licensed real estate agent, it's pretty straightforward, and I assume my take will be similar to that of other agents. 

But if I sold today I likely would lose atleast 10k.Would it be feasible to just relocate for the job and rent the house for the time being and see what happens?

Over time, you can quickly assess whether a deal is even worth further analysis before diving into detailed underwriting.