Any suggestions on how I can lower my taxable income is appreciated.

In addition I am looking to purely invest not reside in the property. 

Or will the HD lender provide additional funds for construction?

My question is whether those of you who rent on these websites do background checks on renters or have renters sign any additional rental agreements and just generally how you go about screening renters for 30+ day rentals. 

We have some suggestions, but only the PM can give the answer.

When Syndicators use a BD team, there is no additional cost to the investor.

I guess as you suggested have to talk to multiple bank lenders.

In addition to this what else can I do to protect myself and ensure that they don't take anything more than is required from that security deposit?

Currently it has 6 rooms ( 5 bed and 1 additional room). common areas are fully furnished and bedrooms are unfurnished.

In addition to the $106,000, we also paid ~$3500 in closing costs.