Right under the wood and/or under the house in the crawlspace? 

If you just called someone up and asked how you could help them, you would be ten steps ahead of Bobby, who is stammering through the first line of a script from 1974 about a cash offer when the homeowner bought the house for 51k in 1978 and it's worth 804k (aka does not need cash, he needs a place to go).Agree 💯!

Having the ability to live for free, while minimizing the taxes on my W2 income.

(I have a special needs trust for my son so have dealt with the complexities.)My bigger concern would not be your liability exposure but doing something that could potentially endanger the support benefits your brother is entitled to.

Has anyone also finished a project since the new rules came to place but placed a tenant meanwhile before they had these?

Love the idea of helping out a first time buyer, may run into trouble if she's not the primary resident, check w/ lender but I don't think that'll fly w/o more of a down payment.

What's the objective? 

It took a while to find trustworthy advice about this but I read the text of the law and it explicitly stated this, so I was lucky.2) The time you have between selling and identifying the replacement property is very short, and the time you have between selling and purchasing is also short.

Lawton definitely has its reputation, and you're right about the single-industry concern and the high crime perception, which makes it counterintuitive for many investors.

Keep grinding; the right deal will come.