Judicious use of leverage (debt) when the property will still cash flow positive after debt service; when there’s enough equity left in the property to refinance if advantageous, and when sufficient reserves are held to cover vacancies, recessions, and unexpected repairs5.

Because dual agency is an impossibility (I’m a lawyer) and if I want to see one property I don’t want to be tied to an agent simply because I wanted to see a different property.The listing agent’s fiduciary duty to his seller client should be sufficient for the listing agent to just do a no agency showing agreement with the potential buyer.

I just saw a post by @kenny Simpson (who for some reason doesn’t show up in @ search, that said there was a Fannie Mae low downpayment option with no self sufficiency test…) maybe you can find it though I don’t know why I couldn’t mention him. 

Six months reserves should be more than sufficient to qualify and conservative to account for any (eventual) unforeseen circumstances. 

He has a Zinus Green Tea at his apartment that used to be in his bedroom and he is sleeping in the guest room.My brother in law went on hospice 2 weeks ago so we might have my sister in law move in with us until she goes to live with her son in San Diego so we needed it.

We were under contract for a couple of months while we got through the various contingency periods (attorney approval, inspections, appraisal) and while the tenants were given a sufficient amount of time to move out. 

Does the garage have proper firewall protection and heat alarms for whoever is sleeping there?

(If first support agent doesn't understand or says no, call again until you get someone who can help or give you a sufficient answer)If you're comfortable sharing your VRBO listing, lots of folks here are happy to offer tips and feedback to help improve your listings performance.Check out this thread about How to increase VRBO rankingsGood luck!

If 10% is sufficient, do that and keep the remaining money as a reserve or for your next investment.

You can do both basic housing aimed at students (they usually aren't hard to impress, just want a safe place to sleep - they don't need fancy and usually won't maintain fancy) and higher-end housing geared towards all of the professionals who work at the area hospitals, and everyone who works in Albany area in general.