It's OK to locate your new business in your living place if you can close it off and have minimal distractions, especially personal ones.Try to stay in control of everything you are responsible for.  

Quick one,I understand profits from wholesaling activities are tax as ordinary income; but, is there a way to minimized the taxes that one needs to pay from money earned in wholesaling?

Welcome to the site Account ClosedMy recommendation to you would be to setup a keyword alert for the term "Turnkey" There are many operators here on BP pitching products that would be geared towards someone in your situation and the term "Turnkey" will trigger the majority of those discussions and offerings. 

I have a full-time job and my initial reason for acquiring a multi-unit property was in order to live for free aka house hack and, more importantly, to write off the expenses (renos, mortgage, etc) in order to get more taxes back at the end of the year.When "pitching" a portfolio lender, does it hurt you if you have been breaking even or reporting a loss for the above stated purposes? 

Then, on the expense side - put in the minimal payment for the HELOC (P+I). 

@Stefanie Willie-Bonglo  well if they don't report to the fico folks... and they are offering Unsecured loans.. to folks just starting out with minimal assets and cash reserves ( not suggesting that's you or your family) ..

Their sales pitches are enticing, which of course raises in my mind red flags of possible scams, but after searching online (including here), I can't find one negative report posted against them.

I'm curious if anyone has ever successfully pitched a mortgage lender an investment property on the basis of the potential income it could generate from Airbnb, VRBO, Flipkey, etc.?  

I learned a few things while going through this process that I will keep in mind for future deals (much easier to get cosmetic repairs done with minimal surprises vs the bigger repairs due to being stationed overseas with the Military).  

Has minimal competition How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?