It could be any side-hustle you want just as long as you like it and your able to save some extra $$$.2.

If you can check these boxes off you would be able to start buying long term rentals with having owned zero real-estate prior to the first transaction. 

One of the principal industry concerns about the vast power granted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was that these powers were too insulated from review….The ruling sends a crystal-clear message to federal agencies that their powers are not unlimited…We would not be at this point today if government agencies were more prudent and consistent about staying within their statutory authorities, grounding their rulemakings in empirical facts, and heeding appropriate procedural safeguards…Instead, too frequently, our regulators appear to be chasing headlines and short-term political wins.”National Association of Homebuilders - “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is an important step forward to advance meaningful regulatory reform because it means that federal agencies can no longer continuously change the law – and the intent of Congress – by implementing their own interpretation of statutes as long as the interpretation is viewed as being ‘reasonable.’

If I am understanding RTLO correctly and your response - as long as the security deposit is sitting in a separate subaccount (eg separate checking or savings account) in a personal bank account, it's not considered to be intermingled with personal finances.

I'm considering short- or long-term rental but current demand is low due to the offseason.

Property is a C class area, so I am concerned about the quality of tenant I will get but I am close to Ohio State University, a hospital, and short north/downtown columbus so I am hoping as long as I screen tenants I can find some promising people.

It really depends on what strategy your trying to implement as some areas are better for STR/MTR then long term and vice versa.

My long term goal is to get into Multifamily apartments.

The way we look at it however is this sort of situation would be OK - but its a one time referral fee - any sort of arrangement with a long-term referral fee / borrower protection is reserved for true professional mortgage brokers - who like @Chris Seveney mentioned, would be doing more legwork on the deal vs. a simple and clean referral handoffvia CFPB on referral fees for business-purpose hard money loans:§ 1024.5 Coverage of RESPA.THIS VERSION IS THE CURRENT REGULATIONView all versions of this regulationSearch this regulationRegulation X(a) Applicability.

They seem to have a good business model and one of the owners is an investor himself which is definitely a plus, but they charge a leasing fee (to find and get a qualified tenant into the property) equal to 1 month of rent, which comes out to an additional 4%-8% on top of the monthly 10% maintenance/management fee depending on how long the tenant stays.