However, from the stories I've heard it so far, sounds like it can lead me to the life I want for my future if I play my cards right.

Preference is cash-flow, but open to appreciation/equity plays as well.

Your number two is a bit different than what to expect on a short-term rental play.

Tenants will play games:1) Leave a minor home alone - no one should enter!

(My renovated units are unusually nice at each price point where I compete-- and so far, I have always had multiple applicants that want to rent; even in the dead of winter and right before the Christmas holidays).

This deal that you mentioned sounds at first blush that it's dead in the water because of the large deposit.

From there, you could do a cost segregation study on that property which will lower taxes for that year and potentially create additional carryover losses.Always options to keep reinvesting assuming the equity is there to keep playing the real estate market 

They are just playing with fire, really, but it happens everywhere.

Her half-siblings, who felt she didn’t deserve the property, were dead set against the sale and refused to cooperate.

Sorry Vendee appears to be dead again. :( but it may come back