I would strongly encourage you to reap the benefit of the VA Loan and hold onto the liquid cash that you have.

Even if you bought in 07-08 if you held because you had a strong financial position with reserves(which you always should) then you built tons of wealth.Moral is… you buy based on the best info you have available, not off what you FEEL the market is going to do.

So I would strongly recommend finding a good cleaning person who can clean regularly and report back to you on the condition of the house.

After taking applications and having 2 dogs of my own it was a no brainer to just tack on $25/month (my market probably not as strong as others) and pocket the extra profit.

I recommend you build a strong foundational understanding of real estate investing.1.

(I *think*, please verify, accounting is not my strong point.)

Strong cashflows, great appreciation values.

@Jimmy Johnson I would strongly advise you to throw out CAP rate, and compare these in a STR-specific spreadsheet to help show cash-on-cash return. 

Not so much wetland delineation (need really strong plant ID, soil science, and ecology knowledge) and wetland/waters permitting unless they specifically stumbled into/specialized in that field.

He gave the same value to my property as one that was half the size, used comps over a mile away, and used low rental comps from a far distance despite me owning a fully-rented property one street over that wasn't used in his analysis.I have such a strong dislike for appraisers these days, I've considered going full 'Dexter' and ridding the world of them one at a time lol.In all seriousness though, adding the rehab credit to the settlement statement is something I'll try out on my next property.