Do I need to set up a business account, W9, and invoice payment platform for 1 short-term rental or can I pay her through apple pay?  

New builds are far more desirable, and have less total cost of ownership than many of the stick framed, pre-existing, non conforming older homes. 

If I am unable to change the financing structure due to high costs of refinancing, are there ways to still protect the assets under an LLC?

I am a loan officer and I have some great software and calculators for this stuff, so let’s set up a call sometime and we can discuss your options.

It's going to cost about $550k to build and it has already appraised well over $800k.

Quick Turnaround: Whole-tailing allows for rapid transactions, minimizing holding costs.

My thought process was to get my feet wet on a lower cost city property (literally within 5-10 minutes of the ‘nicer’ neighborhoods).

Be sure to no only account for the cost of the cash for keys but your additional holding costs while you have to wait to get them out.

@Andrew GarrettI’ve been investing in NC for a while, the main issue with Raleigh is rents are low compared to costs of homes.

I also suggest that the tenant install a camera that stores videos of the driveway, then when tenant has proof, you can send notice to owner next door that he is to eliminate hazards he is creating, or you will sue for damages, especially if it costs you tenants, as they can’t afford and shouldn’t have to deal with repeated damage.