Now the situation has occurred that we need to rent the house out in order to help pay for his long term care expenses. 

Those were the situations where I was looking for ways to make it work.Don’t come out the gate haggling, or even discussing the terms at all.

Quote from @Jake Bute: Good Afternoon,I listened to Wheelwright's podcast the other day discussing how short term rentals do not have the same rules as long-term rentals when it comes to some of the tax laws around active/passive investing.

The fix-up and increased value will not matter to the IRS as long as you sell within a reasonable time frame of the house passing into the estate.

Prepayment penalties- usually 1-5 year terms.

The Long term, after some reserves, I'd like to bring down the assessment costs since I worry that this will negatively impact the property value. 

The strategy there is more about long-term appreciation since cash flow can be razor-thin.

If you have a 2 year work history, and go get a W2 job tomorrow, we could use your base pay right away (as long as it is "guaranteed hours" or considered "full time". 

Passive income is certainly the name of the game - building a real estate portfolio and creating generational wealth are key ingredients to long term holistic financial health and success.There are fantastic real estate investment opportunities in various markets, particularly in the Midwest and Southeast of the country. 

I'm most interested in Single-Family or Multi-Family Homes with the intention of having Mid or Long-Term rentals (although I am not opposed to Short-Term either).