Many lenders won't make a loan that small!

For example, even 50% down payment, the loan repayment is still more than the rental income. 

Utilizing their favorable financing relationships to then secure a ~$1M loan from a local credit union.

You need to pass "material participation" test and personal use test, but that's for your future tax professional to explain.Yes, bonus depreciation is possible, but only on the current value of the personal property and land improvements.

He did give me an idea of how the area has progressed over the years in which he did say it has been slow and somewhat steady progression when it comes to improving the neighborhood.

Is there a way I can wrap renovation costs into a conventional loan?

The only chance you have is to qualify for a “first time farmer” loan at 1.5%.

At the time, our funding was limited so we had intended to use an FHA loan in order to acquire the property which would have allowed us to have a 3.5% down payment.

This move had many anticipating a crash in the CRE market, with dire predictions of banks collapsing under the weight of defaulted loans.

I see people are getting a loan and investment capital to cover the property amount but then they drop 100k on renovations and they say they have $0 invested.