I have yet to meet an investor who started in the small property space and "chose" to stay there.

I currently have an operating AirBnB in Colorado and looking to do a vacation this winter, staying in some AirBnBs while on the trip.  

Be consistent and you will stay there."

That may mean doing something that may make you uncomfortable such as calling them directly if you can get a number or knocking on their door, but you can at least start any discussion with "I live in this property and would like to stay there" so as not to sound like some vulture circling like other investors may appear to them.

Because Saturday and Sunday only amounted to two days, and you would have no business-related activities on these days, the fact that you had to stay until/through Monday to finish the seminar, still means that majority of the time there was spent on deductible activities - thus whole trip, including air and hotel is deductible.

Just wanted to add that FHA loans are fairly expensive these days and the mortgage insurance stays on there for the life of the loan.  

I would side strongly with your friends (I believe the technicality on OO isn't being there full time, it's like more than X amount of days for 1 year or something.) so I would say maybe not "move in" but make sure you have some stuff to stay there when you have vacancies.

My advise, stay with out of state areas that you know.

If they leave your new tenant may very well be one who only stays for one year before moving on, and that costs time and trouble.  

So in order to get 100% of my All-in cost covered I do not want them to exceed 70% of the ARV to stay conservative.