Your best bet is to keep a pulse on the area and fresh listings, but to otherwise venture just north or south.Focus on the areas that are more inviting and often even more monetizing, if you want to improve your chances for a short term rental permit on the Oregon Coast. 

We're able to afford the place as a 2 flat, but still pondering legal options for monetizing the garden unit, if any exist. 

The ONLY things that matter is -Control and -Monetization, correct? 

I've talked with far too many "investors" who were encouraged to "jump in" to investing without any knowledge or plan on how to monetize it.

Plus, follow their inner circle peer organizations to ensure they aren't practing any illegal self-monetizing [thefts] of client monies. 

If I assume each property provides $300/Mo net cash flow:$10,000 / $300 ≈ 33 propertiesHow much do you need for the down payments on 33 properties?

It takes time to get that up and running and monetized but it's free to start and you have lots of land to film.I know it's not the loan advice you're looking for, but I love brainstorming.

(An entrepreneur could possibly monetize this information, as it’s valuable for future syndication investors ;)

Heard too many times of people being wealth but cash poor because they can't access/monetize their assets. 

I even wanted to monetize for ONLY .99 7 tips on what to look for when walking a prop to purchase, especially the ones that have been vacant for year.