Hi Casey,I would recommend looking into buying right in the City of Detroit and not necessarily the suburban areas.

I highly recommend finding a broker and have them find a policy that meets your specific requirements.

The priority is consistent recommendations from active investors.

Can anyone recommend hard money lenders who specialize in working with first-time investors?

@Andrae S Wiggins recommend you upgrade your BP membership to Pro to access the BP Calculators to evaluate rental purchases.Play with the numbers to figure out the purchase price that gives you your target ROI.That's the number you'll need to make an offer at, NOT what the seller is asking.Yes, you will get a lot of rejects, but whoever said investing was easy?

If that’s the case, I’d recommend considering areas outside of Dallas proper where you can still find properties with strong growth potential.Cities like Prosper, Melissa, Princeton, and Anna are excellent options to explore.

@Jared Goldwasseri would strongly recommend you go to Cincinnati in person. 

I would highly recommend talking to Jeff Weller at Coast 2 Coast and Fernando Corona both are also PadSplit hosts but we're some of the first expert lenders .

Honestly looking at your situation I'm not sure I would recommend you do the taxes yourself,  change of accounting method (F 3115) isn't easy for someone that hadn't done them before these online software companies make things seem easier than what they are, they are good for less complex situations. 

@Melissa Odom I recommend connecting with a commercial real estate broker to get a broker price opinion on your current value and after-construction value.