With the short time to move out state, I offer to take care of house.

As opposed to buying a house, as soon as you sign (or shortly thereafter) you own the property and the transaction is complete.

A week is too short.   

and yes City of Portland is extremely strict with the short term rentals, they even go on the airbnb website to look for operators without a permit.

It depends on if IRS considers you an investor or trader. they look at different factors, I pulled court cases where they looked at these:(1) the taxpayer's investment intent; (2) the nature of the income to be derived from the activity; and (3) the frequency, extent, and regularity of the taxpayer's securities transactions (Kay; Mayer; and Moller)  A taxpayer is a securities trader only when both of the following are true: (1) the taxpayer's trading activity is substantial; and (2) the taxpayer seeks to profit from short-term swings in the daily market movement, rather than to profit from the long-term holding of investments. 

It may not appreciate much now, or even take a small short term dip, but several years from now you will be set.

But that makes no difference if you lose the property because you can't make the payments in the short-term.This is an extreme example just to prove the point.

Houston numbers falling short compared to the profits I've been seeing from small towns. 

Hey Everyone,We're looking for a short-term loan document to outline the terms of a private loan.Without going into too many details, we are in the process of acquiring a new MFH rental property and borrowed about $60,000 from family to be repaid over 10 years with 3% interest.

I have decided to do short term rentals of my home in baltimore to travel nurses and other traveling professionals.