Is there any creative way to avoid/reduce capital gains tax on the sale ?

The amount of capital required depends on the city's appreciation rate.

In the meantime, most of my capital is tied up and I am looking to be Super creative and I have absolutely the time and energy to cold call until i find someone that is game...even if i got to get a property in Alaska.

The 4% and 6% rates are just the names given to differentiate commercial and owner-occupied.The 6% rate is obviously significantly high, but it's fairly average nationally.

If you don't have the most amount of liquidity and want to scale with as little capital as possible, I would focus on cash flow. 

*Have sufficient capital to 1) invest in exceptional design and amenities to stand out in a saturated market and 2) endure the low season.

I just came across New Again Houses franchising for home flipping and am interested because I'd also like to begin flipping homes without using my own capital.

We're largely looking at value add projects (aka BRRRR **cringe**) so that the vast majority of capital is coming out once a refi is done.Not vanilla, obviously.

that may work for others, but i don't have enough capital to do that, and the returns are in the tougher strategies (like STR - i didn't look at your other posts, but if you are successful in STR, that's great.) 

Also the opportunity cost of not deploying your capital in an investment vehicle yielding more than 7% is high.