You can often make MORE money in the end charging a little less rent by reducing these things. 3.

Should I sell (use the money to buy other rentals) our current primary residence in Tampa or rent it out?

Rentals create cash flow, and that's what we want as real estate investors, but you need cash on hand for unforeseen circumstances.The AC needs to be replaced, that's $7K to $10K or more depending on the size of the house and if you have one rental, it will eat all your cash flow, same to replace a roof, etc, or if tenant trash the home, you need money to fix it again.To me personally a nice rental portfolio that is healthy consists about 10 units, so if you have an issue with a house the portfolio can cover the repairs and still healthy, but when starting you need to have cash on hand just in caseYes, there are multiple strategies you can use to hack your way to buy your first rental with minimum cash, but I would start wholesaling or fix and flip a few deals to create that cash as fast as possible

While this wouldn't be my number one choice of locations, all I care about is making money. 

You could rent a home for under $2,000 and save the extra money.

So I worked 4 jobs in that 18-month timeframe to come up with the money for a suitable downpayment (without touching my brokerage, 401k, etc).Gosh!

(S-corp is a tax election that you can do later if you make over a certain amount of money. 

This will confirm what the lease terms and actual rents the tenants are paying. 

She's then at risk of losing her money, but it also means she won't do that to another landlord.

With a great deal on the first one you actually purchase, you will have created space for yourself to make mistakes.