You could 1031 Exchange into a property and hold it as rental, investment or business use property for a couple of years (ish) and then change you intent and move into it later, but if your original initial intent is/was to use it as your primary residence it would not qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment.  

I don't know the market in CA, but in Baltimore, I would pass on that deal since it's not too hard here to beat the 2% rule.Definitely take advantage of the Rental Calculator here to analyze the deals so you can easily visualize the tweaks in the math (increase in rent, lower purchase price, self-manage etc)

That is NOT the norm in the real estate business and these people that often break laws think they are entitled to special treatment!

If you're just doing basic residential drawings and 3D visualization, sketchup might work for you.

Between monthly cash flow, depreciation, favorable tax treatment for resale & final profits, I need to take a more serious look.So right after I read your post, I went and bought 's book on investing in rental properties, and I'm tearing into it already.

I've also seen this problem arise when the seller or previous owner reverted the property to an owner-occupied property for homestead tax treatment due to hardship. 

I have actually charged owners to remove junk just so I could do a proper treatment.

Make sure that the properties that you have the intent to acquire properties for rental, investment or business use and then hold them (season them) for a period of time in order to demonstrate intent so that you can qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment.  

It's giving every potential tenant the exact same treatment.  

If they have NH clients already, they will already know the NH state tax treatments.