You’ll need to put some work and time on getting your property leased and maintained.More leverage, more risk – there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

I will find a contractor familiar with abnormal joist work and see how much this will run me.

Try calling the Photographer or author of the piece and ask the owners name.Then call the owner and discuss the prices paid for interior and exterior decorating (and the year paid-inflation) as well as interior designer(s) used or Architects used to achieve the look.That should shortcut your budgeting process a little bit.

That said there are a ton of 1 man truck type guys who identify as handyman/women that do awesome work and know what they're doing.

Not AT ALL.I explained this MANY times before but I shall give you a shortcut You send 1000 mailers... first round... you get 30 responses.You send the same people an other set of mailers, you now get 21 responses (and a and a whole lot of pissed off people)You sent an other 1000 mailers, you get3 new responders.Total: 54 responses.Now... how about this:You send 1000 mailers... you get 30 responses.You send an other 1000 mailers to a completely new set of people.. 

I hire professionals that are experts in their job, back their work, and are insured.

I've been out bid on some buildings that needed a lot of work and had me wondering what the buyer saw.  2022 will be an interesting year.

We are heading up in Jan to do some work and spend some time there.

How can I prove 750 hours of work, and more work than my W2 job in order to qualify for maximum deductions when filing my income taxes?

I'd love to do primary design for these tiny homes or cabins myself (I've got some background in CAD work and am a civil engineer).