In my case I’m looking for single-family that would allow me to either Airbnb or rent a portion of the house for a year or two before moving out and turning it into a full time rental.

Typically in situations such as this, an elevation certificate (or something similar) can be obtained to show that the dwelling itself is not in the flood zone, but that simply a portion of the property is. 

If so, is there an issue making this election for only a portion of the year for the property, since it was a rental part of the year with expenses deducted on Schedule E. 

I also thought it'd be good to get first-hand experience of how much effort certain things were to do.I've already done a few things in the past like:- Tearing out carpet and replacing the entire floor with wood laminate- Painting an entire interior- Painting kitchen cabinets- Resurfacing a laminate countertop with concrete- Replaced a toiletI'd like to learn a bit more, like:- laying tile- replacing a window- replacing a light fixture / switch- potentially retiling a portion of a roofWhile I don't see myself doing all these things for future investments, I think that having a good understanding of what it takes to do each one gives me good leverage and experience when negotiating with contractors.

However, we still aren't seeing them take a huge portion of the market share.

An additional option is to offer partnering on the BRRRR, they receive a portion of the proceeds and you put up the cash to renovate.

Portion will need replaced.

Design the multi-unit with the minimal backyard setback allowed by code and plan to use the alley easement as the main portion of your backyard.  

Only issue we had regarding the management of the project was with the handyman portion of the job as he was slow and the work was not up to par(he had to redo tile and several fixtures).

Only issue we had regarding the management of the project was with the handyman portion of the job as he was slow and the work was not up to par(he had to redo tile and several fixtures).