I avoided a property for having a furnace in the living room, so I don't have great advice other than bringing in a professional and getting a couple of quotes and suggestions for removing it/ coming up with an alternative. 

Being open minded to alternative ways to utilize RE is good business.

It's incredibly shortsighted to depend on the government to fulfill their side of that bargain.I absolutely believe that student loan debt combined with millennial behavior in general (less desire to settle in one place permanently, more job-hopping, greater focus on experiences rather than material possessions) will impact the housing market.

@Natalie Wells@Colin M.Of course, if you take a distribution from your retirement account you will have to pay the taxes and (likely) penalties.There are possible alternatives which would allow to you use these funds without paying taxes or penalties.First, you may wish to consider transferring the funds to a self-directed 401k or IRA which will allow you to invest in real estate without incurring taxes or penalties.

are there suggestions to alternative lenders that are more favorable to investment?

Accounting/tax questions:Many of us know that in order to qualify as a real estate professional status, one of the things you have to do is you have to perform more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.Would the time reading books related to real estate count as part of the 750 hours?

The availability and prices of building materials could be impacted for new development, but for existing real estate and long-term buy and hold rentals, I don't see a major impact.

Alternatively, I saw bungalows in the neighborhood have added the second bathroom in the basement.

It is waste and no way efficient for the materials you can buy.

I did the work myself for the 45k included labor and materials and I paid property tax for 2 years at about 5k for a total of 50k in expenses.