It's only safe to count on the lower number of 250, especially since your house might not be 'as normal' as others.  

A converted garage will count as a room as long as there is a connection to your house (and not a standalone building) and also there must be a way to enter the room internally in the house.

But with a license, you are therefore a sole proprietor and can count those expenses toward your taxes, which could offset your rental income.

@Susan Maneck  I had a significant line of credit with community bank out of Hattisburg .. 7 figures. be cause I was buying sojack they counted me in the CRA .its not the banks its the residence.. they still have to qualify.. and having owned about 300 rentals in Sojac I understand that maybe 10 of them could acutally qualify for a loan..

Obviously at that price point it's not in an up-and-coming area and appreciation should not be counted on, but I'm purely thinking cashflow so that's a non-issue for me.

But I am fairly certain it doesn't work like that in any instance since they are not providing to a charity/non-profit.Now if you are talking about funds to use on your next home purchase, then no it cannot be counted as a gift.

We have purchased all of our investment properties (4 so far since August of last year) with conventional loans in my husband's name because: A) He is the one with income and I have debt that we didn't want considered, and B) If we put both names on the mortgage then it counts against BOTH of us and we could otherwise EACH get 10 conventional loans (assuming that someday I have an income that would qualify me for a conventional mortgage).

@THU NGUYEN is completely correct @Stacy Williams if you have the GOOD deals you will have no issues assigning them to a investor. just make sure you cross your "T" and dot your "I" and you will be fine and without any delays lol... as a matter of fact i got an email yesterday for a property at 8:25pm it was a great deal i emailed back at 8:40 and the house as already sold.. 

There was but, in the counter offer, that was crossed out.

Cross your fingers and hope you have no tenant issues till you build up your reserves.