Most lenders have varying guidelines around the amount of square footage that can be for business versus residential. 

Do not work with a broker as they are just relaying information from the actual lender anyways and you will pay additional fee's for using a broker versus working with the direct lender.

Yes, the flooring would eat into the ROI but thinking in the long term, it will save costs of carpet cleaning and replacement in a couple years, and reduce turnaround time, and I think I can get 50% bonus depreciation if I do it in the first year versus a few yrs down the road.

Is there any benefit to the accountant being local versus not?

Again, a 150k equity gain in 2 years versus 10k in 2 years are very different.If cash flow is your only deciding factor, strategies like STR or MTR are finding great success in the Austin area - they just tend to have more involvement/management than LTR. 

We're debating the merits of holding versus selling as the ultimate goal for both of us is to get into rentals eventually.Here are the numbers:* Land Cost (paid off): $33k/lot* Build Cost: $130k/house* Simplified Total Cost: $166k/house* Anticipated Sale Price: $315k/house* Anticipated Rent: $2k-2.5k/houseFrom a hold perspective, it's not quite a 2% unicorn, but it's a 1.2-1.5%-er for a brand new construction which is pretty tempting.

@Caleb Reits If you're looking to invest in mobile homes in parks, I'd say the key difference versus single-family homes is getting your foot through the door with the park manager and/or owner.

@Mike FontaineYou can also Google for FHA 2-3 unit qualifications.Don't worry about the 203k part, that's an add-on.One of your challenges may be using income from a current lease to qualify for the FHA loan, versus trying to use project rents from a unit that is currently vacant that you need to rehab.

Or selling a BRRRR at year 3 versus at year 10...will drive up IRR for the same reason.  

Might be something for you to consider since most people are online and it's a relatively simple way of getting leads, versus cold calling endless lists.