That's why a lot of RE investors don't bank on appreciation, especially if you put 0% down.I'm admittedly in a different situation than you (I'm single with no kids), but I found that I could rent a place in a neighborhood I wanted to live in way for less than the non-equity building costs of buying a house in a neighborhood I'd be ok living in. 

Close to $0 taxes with a $500k net income from non-RE business?

All my properties are grandfathered in to the non-conforming zoning.  

For "Conforming, Conventional" loans (loans governed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) each bank uses the same set of rules. 

Our contract has a due diligence clause in it, so we can still back out if anything huge comes up.Current Home Info: 1970 sqft, 15 year mortgage (about 13.5 years left) at 3.375%, monthly payment of $1,241 (will go up a couple hundred due to SC taxes raising for non-primary residencies). 

The safe harbor applies to amounts paid during the tax year to acquire or produce what the regs call a “unit of property” (UOP), you must meet these requirements: (1) at the beginning of the tax year, the taxpayer has written accounting procedures treating as an expense for non-tax purposes amounts paid for property costing less than a specified dollar amount (which will be 2500 for you), or with an economic useful life of 12 months or less;.(2) the taxpayer treats the amount paid for the property as an expense on its books and records in accordance with its accounting procedures. ( do this on your bookkeeping software or whatever you utilize)(3) the amount paid for the UOP doesn't exceed $2,500. as substantiated by invoice.Note: The cost for the Unit of Property includes additional costs (for example, delivery fees, installation services, or similar costs) if these additional costs are included on the same invoice with the tangible property.Eg:A purchases 100 printers at $500 each for a total cost of $500,000 as indicated by the invoice.

I would ask him to get a preapproval for non-owner occupied mortgage.

@John Thedford  If I get a blast e mail in my state and public records indicate the person sending it does not own it and they are acting like brokers..

@Connor EichmanThey stoped mailing out renewal notices in Philly (I got non this year).

This is to ensure that the borrower does not default in case of non-occupancy of rental units.In case of point 1 to prove experience, the owner has to prove one of below:1.