After initially focusing on finding a 2-4 unit property, I recently successfully pivoted to a rent by room strategy that has been working well so far.

Initially I was thinking I would buy a couple of SFH, I am not an expert, but perhaps looking into Duplexes or a house in Nashville where I could Airbnb.  

Lower initial cost and lower payment, and based on current market trends and long term federal policy outlook, I believe you'll be able to rate and term refi within 3-5 years.

The calculation is the same as if you paid cash....selling price (less actual selling costs) minus purchase price (deducting some initial closing costs and non expenses capital improvements).

Marketing I've done: Listed property w/ local property managers - they post on MLS and syndicates to Zillow, apts.com and craigslistI'm posting myself in off-campus forums and forwarding qualified applicants to property managers for showings April 15-30th (when I didn't have the property managers)8-10 showings mostly off Zillow/FB~3 Applications0 qualified renters/0 tenants bookedMay Stats:9 or 10 showings 4 applications1 tenant booked in unit #1There are 2 remaining units, unit 2 and 3, which were initially priced higher than unit #1 because they are slightly larger -- That said, I'm thinking that I reduce prices and take advantage of the higher demand in the coming months...Does this answer your question?

The plan we are looking at is to use HML for initial purchase, fix up within ~3 months, and then refi into a conventional loan.

Here are some items to consider:Reality is with realistic expenses in your market virtually every property is initially cash flow negative.  

The depreciation deduction allows investors to recover the cost of the initial investment over the life of the property- hence a 'hold' portion of a buy & hold investment vs a flip and the long term recouping. 

In the explanation of what an ARM is and why someone might prefer it, the course mentions that hybrid ARMs often have an initial fixed period of the loan in which the interest rate is usually lower than what you might get with a standard fixed-rate mortgage.I was wondering if anyone had any experience or thoughts on using this initial fixed period to obtain a low-interest rate and then refinancing to a fixed-rate mortgage before the ARM is adjusted.

Sure, it works, but my initial reaction is, WTF?