Starting my own investment journey and looking to begin acquiring more properties and learn from other investors here. 

If you plan to live in this home for a few years:Look at the time it takes to recoup your funds.

I'm negotiating with them at the moment.

Shorter cash cycle marketing would be PPC, but I wouldn't recommend it if you are just starting out.

Agree that it is better to stop the bleeding, rent it at the lower rent with a term to end in a hopefully more favorable renewal time.  

Owner-occupied transactions are mostly emotional decision based.Investors should check emotions at the door and only make business based decisions.What does that mean in practice?

Can anyone recommend a great REI friendly agent? 

That exceeds the 5 percent max allowed by Fannie Mae, at least in Colorado.

Assuming you don’t meet the 500 hour test, you will likely need to document the time of others spent working on your property.In addition, you need to have guests at your property as well.Until you are 100% sure you can utilize the short term rental loophole, I’d wait to do the cost segregation study.

There are a lot of active users in Houston that you should be able to connect with and meet at local meetups if you don't know them already from your experience.