Typically, most cities allow for 30 day minimum rentals.

We were recently networking and someone told us about buying homes from auctions.

WOW.. 40k plus deposits on a home to be built.. ??? 

Hi @JC Wu - typically homes under 60k will need to be cash only.

However, prices on $1M homes haven't really appreciated all that much and we are looking to move to something much smaller near where our kids go to school. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

What about usury laws for owner occupied homes for firsts? 

Sometimes hard to find this happy medium in rate sheets, though.Another consideration would be taxes - points are typically treated as interest, so if your tax obligations are high this year vs being higher in the future, then this could also impact buying down now vs paying a little more in interest in future years. 

This deal included a a older home and a mobile home each with a separate septic tank and county water.

@Adriana Medina, a typical landlord is not a skilled detective/investigator.