For example, the property may need to be listed for sale prior to accepting your offer and may need to be in MLS prior to accepting offers, etc. so I do agree with the above comment that it is usually best to contact a local negotiator/attorney who can walk you through what the next steps are.

Partnering is hard to do because it is usually cheaper to just pay for the needed services, however having both licences and being good at both is a valuable skill set.

If you're talking owner occupied, meaning you're going to live there, it seems like choosing between those two areas is the primary consideration, then once you've picked that market you can dive down to consider specific properties.For your own personal residence, usually other life factors such as proximity to your place of employment and family considerations (spouse/partner, children, parents/extended family) are even more important than real estate investment.

That is usually why people use hard money lenders. 

Usually the advice on a personal residence is to choose whichver best meets your needs and desires...life is short.

Tax Benefits - I'm not an accountant, but depreciation against your top line income usually causes a net loss which can then be transferred over to your W2 income should you make less than $150k per year. 

In some states you can claim abandoned real estate after taking possession of it for a period of time, usually 7-20 years. 

They usually want you to put some skin in the game, so you might have to put down 10-30% down payment, depending on the deal and your experience.

Now, the good tenants usually follow up and explain the situation and once they pay, tell them to just disregard the notice, and that it’s just part of the process, nothing personal. 

If the property being owner-occupied is part of the underwriting to get the loan, it's usually just a year.