My ideal scenario (if I could go back to when I graduated college and do things again) would be to buy a new property for 5% down, live in it for a year while renting rooms to friends and fixing it up, then buy a new property for 5% down after that year is up.

Hi @Tim Herman, the city of Oceanside, CA allows STR with a permit & a fire department inspection.

He suggested setting up the house with an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and applying for a conditional use permit.

We do want "emergency cash" and to put some away for our 11 and 12 year old's college tuition (not sure where to do that, but that's another topic, unless you have advice on that too).  

However, I’ve lived in Jersey my entire life, Morris County specifically, and many of my friends are graduating college looking for places to rent/buy.

In most places for almost anything permanent that isn't ag (storage barn, planting, etc), you will likely need to either engineer to meet floodplain requirements/permitting or find somewhere else.Happy to take a look at it if you DM me the location, my W2 is environmental consulting and I've done floodplain development permitting for about 7 years, mostly in TX and the gulf states.

As soon as permits are pulled and plans submitted, land owned, we list the house on mls with 3d renderings and floor plans.My avg time from listing until pending is 12 days with 3-4 months construction time and close a week or two after our own internal inspections are passed and complete.

Hi,I am a recent college graduate looking to get into my first rental property. 

I'm also refinancing everything to lock in these low rates for the next 30 years - pulling out cash where the numbers permit!

I'm a recent college graduate, and am currently working as a supervisor at a group home.