It does no good to place capital with a sponsor who has a project with an attractive pro forma to find out later they can't be trusted.

We planted edible landscaping/trees around the whole place to attract wildlife and built the house with both front and back decks to sit outside and enjoy it.

Am i able to write off any renovations in my taxes if i am living in it since it will not be producing me any income while i am residing in it?

I have used the following CRM’s the last 8 years: - Zoho- Top Producer- Sales Force- Investorfuse 2.0- PodioI have found Podio to be the BEST for me in my business.

My parents are still in the area and my brother in law is a contractor, so it's an attractive area to invest once I get together some finances. 

May be your money could produce better results somewhere.

All things being equal, good schools will attract good tenants, regardless of the class of renter.  

Then you can develop investor personas and really hone and refine your marketing campaigns to attract the best investor candidates for your product type, duration, etc. 

The word spread around in the community and I get the best tenants attracted to my properties - increasing my occupancyAll 3 combined made me MILLIONS - hence, the golden rule will make you gold.

If you can get your living expenses down, utilize your VA loan effectively and get an income producing primary residence, it's hard to go wrong!