But my understanding is also that there can be tremendous tax benefits / write offs when it comes to real-estate.I am looking for more guidance from professionals on how to structure my investments and how I could potentially harness the power of depreciation and write-offs to legally save money on my active earned income.

However, if you're looking for a strong market with lower numbers, you do not have to leave the state of Georgia to find them.Areas such as Athens, Augusta, Statesboro, as well as Macon, to name a few, provide great opportunities for flipping and even higher potential for buy-and-hold strategies since all four are college towns.

What information should I be getting from a realtor on a potential rental property? 

However, I still want to minimize potential issues, especially when it comes to hiring a real estate agent.I bought my primary residence back in 2022, but the real estate agent I dealt with wasn't particularly helpful in my opinion. 

When eyeing multifamily investments, you’ll likely encounter two key metrics – cap rates and gross rent multipliers (GRM).At first glance, they seem similar, but there are some important differences between the two.The GRM simply divides the purchase price by the property’s total potential rental income–it doesn’t account for operating expenses.Cap rates, on the other hand, factor in both income AND expenses to give a more complete profitability picture.The main advantage of cap rates is their ability to evaluate better and compare investment returns, risks, and value.

You can have two houses that are identical according to the data on paper/ virtually, but millions of dollars apart in value for infinite reasons that you just can't know without being there (level of finishes, condition, smell, same builder or different, how the property will show to potential buyers, micro-location (same sub-division or different one across the street, one has awesome views while the other doesn't, one could be on a lake while the other isn't, one could be next to gas station or on a busy street, near train tracks, a smelly factory, backing to commercial or high density multifamily, one could have settling issues with the foundation because of expansive soils while the other doesn't etc. etc. etc.).

Properties that are very easy to set on auto pilot collecting high rents with potential of easy to manage tenants. 

We might potentially do hostels

Also lots of potential red tape from state and federal government.

Since I believe an option is not an interest in real property but represent a potential right to purchase one, where does that leave the optionee in lien rights?