I would also recommend something like Acorns which is a Round Up investment vehicle where you link your debit card to the account and every time you make a purchase like $3.49 for a coffee the round up to the nearest dollar amount, $0.51 gets deposited in an investment account.

From here, assuming you get pre approval for a new construction loan, moving into a cheap rental would be one option- I would be cautious of where if you have school age children; in some districts the mailing address must match the home address for the children to attend the same schools as now, and I doubt you would want your tenant receiving anything from the school as it pertained to your children in terms of privacy if you tired to get around this by listing current address as home and mailing address.

I am a newbie investor and I am wondering about pet fees and deposits.

What is the deposit for?

The owners of the home had Hispanic names, which did not match his voice.

Lays out what rent is, terms, Security Deposit, also need to get a copy of current lease.Personally, I would have No issues with buying with tenants in place, if everything looks good, Security Deposit, Current on rent, etc.

In the case of a fireplace I would always look toward future sales of the property and preserve it in case a future buyer wanted a fireplace but I have and do have my carpenter permanently block it off with a heavy duty wood piece, usually 1/2” plywood that we then paint to match the room.

And is it ok to keep the security deposit for lost rent?

Deal with security deposit.

On the mortgage calculator, I've set to 0 the property taxes, insurance etc, and the mortgage amount actually now matches perfectly the amount generated by BiggerPocket report.