Pure hustle.....you're mailing, calling, knocking doors....talking to people...... lots of investors for example start with pre-foreclosures, tax delinquent lists, code violation lists, divorce lists, probate lists, etc.

Make sure you pull permits and meet codes. 

My first stop is almost always City-Data.com, which has exhaustive reports on most zip codes and neighborhoods in the US. 

Said the surging could have caused a fire.The power surges took out the lightbulbs in the house, melted several surge bars and plug adapters, ruined a heating pad, the tenant's magnifying work lamp, several other lamps that were plugged in and the refrigerator causing the loss of approximately $75 worth of groceries in freezer.

More information about the code can be found here.  

In fact, the contractor had placed a lot of it in the backyard setting me up for possible code violations if someone had cared to report it. 3.

To meet code now days you can’t just have 4 circuits anymore, so I would be very clear about what is being performed by the electrician when they say full rewire to code compliance.

I would intend on purely being a landlord and leasing out the bar/retail but I’m sure I’d still need to be knowledgeable about laws and such.

The feedback I'm hearing is the 2nd bedroom is too small (it is admittedly small and we took this into consideration by dropping asking rent), as well as there is a quiet local bar next door that turns people off (bar in middle of residential neighborhood).We have had a lot of interest, however the rental pool has not been the best.

Since you qualify for 121 by having lived in it for 2 out of the previous 5 and since you qualify for 1031 because it is being used as an investment you can take advantage of both sections of the code.