Hi guys, I am looking for an accountant who has experience with rental properties and can give me advice that is worth their fees and help with tax returns.  

Patrick Anibaldi , depending on how much equity you have in your 1st home, you can do a cash out refi or HELOC and consider private lending as well.This will enable you to invest in local real estate with decent returns and not have to worry about managing the property or pay someone else to, which can cut into the profits.

My concerns would be that the rehab was done well, that it's in a good neighborhood, that the appraisal comes in at sales price, that I have good property management and have a solid leveraged cash on cash return.

My wife has a strong history of making nice returns on her homes, has a good eye for figuring out rehab steps that are cost-effective, and is good at staging.  

You should still very much reap the benefits of leverage with your IRA, but would want to work with your CPA to run the numbers and evaluate the impact of this taxation on your returns.

- again, spending 2 years building up a rental portfolio which we anticipate to have healthy returns and under the banner of the broker, how would one part ways amicably.

If you are looking at the returns and you are finding sellers that are willing to finance the transaction then you are forgetting about one of the most important metrics...Cash on cash return.

If I close in 30 days, do I leave my property to a GC for 3 weeks or do I wait until i return to start work?

It is a no brainer for them, and that is why they are doing it.When they knock on the door using the advertising violations as their entree, their main meal could easily be compliance violations tied to retailing or seller finance.

Loading historical data in is something your accountant should be able to do very easily.