But they're the only ones staying and paying rent!

I have a $20,000 debt to the IRS, which I am paying off at $381 per month due to high taxes declared two years in a row to qualify for a mortgage.My goal is to build a portfolio of properties that pay for themselves.

Either way, you could bring in a money partner for the rehab and offer a percentage of the profit when you sell or pay them out through a refinance.

Thats the pay for flipping burgers . 

I rather not go to court because I will have to pay for a lawyer.

Their rent helps pay your mortgage and build your savings. 

You pay for the scrap pile. 

You will need to maintain the property with repairs and eventually capital expenditures as well, plus rentals don't stay occupied 100% of the time and renters don't pay 100% of the time.

to give some feedback, you will need to estimate the cost to repair the house; if you don't know how to do that, we just need some  information of what the house needs and the sqft of the propertyIf the house is, as an example, 2500 sqft, and It looks like you are stuck in time back in the 1980s, but the AC is working,  the roof is ok, and there are no foundation, plumbing, or electrical issues; I can assume maybe a $20 per sqft, so the rehab is about $50K to 60KIf the ARV is 290K minus 10% closing/holding costs, - minus 20% profit - $50K rehab, ideally, in this example, I need to buy the house for about $150K to flip it, but as a landlord, I may be able to pay a bit more, as long as rehab is not too much, and rental is about $3,000 to $3,500 a month

I love that you rented two of your bedrooms as mid term and short term rentals and made enough to pay for the mortgage and now you are going to use the rental income to show you can qualify for another property.This is an excellent strategy and one more people should consider doing in this inflationary environment to offset the biggest cost in their budget--housing.As you rightly point out, you can use this strategy with every house you buy accumulating a portfolio of houses that you originally started out living in as a primary residence every two years.Well done and more people should consider doing the same, or rent their garage, or shed, or a boat, or an extra car.Love it!