Whatever you look at I encourage you not to do what everyone else is doing for example a basic log cabin with rustic furniture and a wooden bear statue, there are hundreds of those and it provides your potential guest no reason to pick you over anyone else's cabin.

True, any property owner and landlord bears responsibility for providing a safe product/service, but due to the nature of property there is simply no way that any responsible owner could predict every means with which someone could hurt themselves. 

If it’s allowed in outer suburbs, bear in mind that it might not be very profitable and that it might be banned in the future.

Take classes that have bearing on real estate while you are going for your non-real estate related degree.

Down payment has no direct bearing on cash flow.

I'm a beginner at this so please bear my ignorance. 

She is visiting you temporarily...Mom is renting bedrooms at $1000+/mo (whatever your market will bear) to one or more tenants equal to the total house rental rate (I get 30-50% higher by subdividing - $3000/mo plus vs $2000 for the whole house).

It's only if you make a profit that the IRS says "hey, some of that belongs to us".Bear in mind that a 'loss' is dictated by your adjusted tax basis.

Not sure how this all works, so bear with me.

Disclose where the deposit is being held on the lease.Place the deposit in a federally insured, interest bearing account in Illinois.