Of those three, they started moving on one.  

There are a few rules and things that can save STR owners some money on taxes depending on your situation.I had no idea what they were and he saved us a ton of dough.He is in WA state and I can ask him if he is taking new clients if you are interested.

And while there are a ton of people on these forums and social media that I would never trust my money with, there are also a lot of people/companies that are on social media that are great operators with long track records.If you are not going to go that route, I recommend you start hitting up local meetups and REIA groups.  

The rehab funds are for completed work only so your parents would need to front the contractor like 15k let's say to get started and then they get their deposit back at the end of the project because they added 15k to the rehab funds with their deposit so 15k will be left over in the escrow account when job is done. 

Everyone has to start somewhere.

In either case, you have to pay up to 25% on the 1250 depreciation recapture for any rental property and CG on the portion of the proceeds proportionate to the amount of time it was used as an investment, sooooo...things would be complicated and the savings on the second unit may not work out being that great.

I would get a roofing contractor out there to pull back that roof and start to source the probable, and you'll need to mitigate that issue then move to the interior work to get the drywall/insulation fixed. 

I know a broker that retired from the same company you currently have and then after the mandatory waiting period contacted all his clients and saved them all 30%.

To save on costs they can't pay their staff nearly as well, leading to good employees leaving for better opportunities in the for-profit space. 

Hey my name is Keith I’m a truck driver who can save about 40k a year.