A good real estate accountant can save you thousands of dollars by leveraging entity selection and formation, tax deductions, cost segregations, bonus depreciation and tax planning.I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation, business taxation, financial planning and tax planning.You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year.

Collecting rent, preserving the asset, minimizing vacancy.

I would be amazed, shocked even, if a traditional financial institution was willing to lend on a non-habitable asset up to 80%. 

A lot of agents don't want to have to educate someone who is broke and has dreams of financial freedom through real estate just to find out you can't buy.

@Ketch BaysStarting small in a cash-flowing market is a smart way to gain experience and build confidence without overextending yourself financially.

im in Orange County CA and there is a huge market here for room by room rentals here. i've been doing this for quite some time (over a decade now), and it certainly has its pro's and cons. my advice if you go about this is make sure you do proper vetting before moving someone in... not only for financials/ credit-worthiness, but also for temperament and expectations in a co-living space. we ask a lot of questions like "how do you handle conflict?"

Here's some basic copy & paste info that may help you make better investing decisions:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Does anyone have any contacts to their acquisitions team and or their current buy boxes Companies below Cerberus Capital Management, L.PAngelo Gordon & Co.GoldenTree Asset ManagementFarallon Capital ManagementOaktree Capital ManagementI own one of the largest wholesale real estate company in Florida and we are newly into Texas for single family homes.

but selling a trophy asset in a great area and then dumping the proceeds into money pits just because of paper math... would not be my step 1.hope this helps

You could, for the purposes of verifying that you are not renting to someone who is potentially dangerous or financially incapable of shouldering the burden of being a roommate, ask them to apply through Zillow so that you can see their background check, that also gives you the opportunity to have others who might be interested in being your roommate as well, apply.