And you're absolutely right rental on schedule E is so much easier to use to demonstrate intent.Your biggest challenge is the fact that putting your parents in there is very easy to interpret motives not investment making it personal property and not investment property. 

Then break down your goal into Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4- and you can hit weekly targets which will lead you towards your major goals. 

The dog in question was a french bulldog, so yes that made the experience easier to handle.

But they should be easier to qualify for. 

I would recommend driving, walking, or biking your target market, street by street.

I look at home prices in my target area and compare that to rent prices for the same size houses.

Currently we trying to get an electric saw that can cut in half, and make it easier to remove (hopefully). 

Perhaps they want to retire in a certain number of years, and they need that performance to hit their retirement target.

I should know the target price/days on market and maybe some comps.

My target is to find 3/2 (or bigger) homes in B-/B+ neighborhoods.