That would help as it would be seen as an income property and some banks are willing to lend on that.

How did you mitigate the missing income and expense data?

If work hours permit, it may be good to dip into investing while you still are making earned income, and then once you have some experience, make the jump.

Open up a separate bank account just for your rental activities.Have all your income and expenses run out of this account.This will make it easier to determine what is business.

The same $5,000 put in TBills and rolled over would net you $1,622.36 with zero risk, liquidity should you need it and no state income tax.Furthermore, I find Spark's claims dubious at best.

For a larger number of loans I would look for some accounting software (and some assistance).

If you are just dealing with a sales and marketing company then you won't have the accountability and you will be paying additional unnecessary markup.

I am an accountability group with most folks who run this gig part time.

Another pitfall is under improving properties in low income areas believing that since its a depressed area in terms of income the people will not have high standards. 

This only works on flips and BRRRRs, otherwise you won't be able to pay off that much debt unless you have other sources of income coming in.This is what I did on my last deal in TX.