He refunded our money but we had expended time and effort hiring him and explaining what we wanted.  

It's one thing to change your bathroom tile choice to save some money and, on the flip side, it's not easy to save money when you need a major issue fixed later on in the project and your budget is almost expended. 

Are you not expending some time and effort into locating those?

We have a small amount of capital $8,000 expendable combined.  

You may want to consider expending your search to other cities.

I'm just about to start Marketing in the US and expending the team with a Man on the ground, fellow investor from NZ who is moving to the US to keep the momentum going.

Your occupancy rate will definitely be overall higher, as @Paul Sandhu mentioned, and even though the individual units will rent for less, if they're all rented simultaneously you'll probably be getting more combined than you would from renting the one big house.So, my thought is, create as many units as is sensible and legally possible (your neighbor was wise to expend their parking), and create them in such a way that they would make sense for LTR as well as STR.  

This will likely inhibit your cash position and slow down your ability to accumulate liquid capital as you will expend a large amount on a downpayment, pick up a mortgage, and incur maintenance expenses that go with every homeowner.

It'll be an enlightening and possibly mildly traumatizing experience as I learn if I'm willing to expend in the years following.Now I have no idea when I'll be able to get the ball rolling on this.

Please advise as I'm considering buying the course and expend my knowledge about investing in Trust DeedsAny help appreciatedDave DoyleLos Angeles