By focusing on the student market, I'll have the ability to rent entire units to pre-determined groups, or rent on a per room basis with individual students.  

As you search for a home that will be a great vacation rental, determine first if there are any HOA restrictions on short term rentals before you move forward.

 @Andrew Nugent A few Easy ways to determine rental rates are:1.

This determines "who" the taxpayer is when the property is sold.  

I usually look at the property cash flow vs all expenses and debt service to determine deals.

Zillow has good guidlines to grasp an idea of rents but the price should be determined on what is moving for the area.  

My question is what signs do I look for to determine that the area could increase in value?

The program will allow the client time to build your credit rating and save for the down payment.Under the program, the clinet would:1) Look for a home that the client wants.2) Client and I would work together and I buy the home at the price client wants to pay. 3) Client provide at least a 5% deposit that will be used towards the future down payment. 4) Client would also be responsible for other costs that a homeowner would: legal feesappraisalinspectionland transfer taxproperty taxinsuranceall maintenance and repairsutilities5) Sign a lease agreement - to determine base lease cost per month multiply purchase price times 0.0062 - example $150,000 x 0.008 = $1,200/month which does not include utilities, tax and insurance.6) Sign an agreement of purchase and sale dated three years out.

A crowdfunding "portal" is only supposed to screen for fraud, not necessarily determine whether a project is feasible or worthy of getting on. 

I recently used this company that got me approved for 8 credit cards that gave me a line of credit of $60K...after going to a few guru classes, they told me I could use the credit cards as "investor cards" and use towards my down payment/ closing costs, I quickly realized 1) the credit cards to use for down payment / closing cost is counted as debt for banks when they determine your debt -to -income ratio. 2) They also didn't want me to liquidate the cards in the bank as they didn't want large deposits made.