I was really just trying to avoid the VA funding fee.

An attorney can draft an agreement to avoid capital interest. - If you dont want a taxable capital interest, your interest should only share future earnings and appreciation attributable to the profit interest.

Why would someone want to take on a partner who can clear the land rather than just paying a land clearing contactor and avoid having to deal with a partner.

However, since this will be my first investment property and I have no experience in either purchasing or rehabbing, I thought I'd avoid this for now and stick with light cosmetic repairs.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

I don't want to leave that amount of money on the table if it can be avoided (even if none of it comes my way, but just stays with him).

Hi AllI'm looking for the best path to take in regards to getting into rental properties in the Hagerstown, MD area (starting with a house hack).I'm still currently living at home with mom and dad while I'm finishing up my last year in college and working full time making ~50K and am able to save/invest most of it due to my only real expenses being a car payment and insurance.I have about $30k saved up between cash and a brokerage account and a pretty solid credit score of around 740 so I shouldn't have much trouble with loan rates.My main question is - would it be more beneficial to wait it out and buy properties with a conventional loan and 20% down to avoid mortgage insurance or would it be better to use an FHA loan just to get my foot in the door and start my rental property journey.Any and all advice/input is greatly appreciated.

., which means you may be able to avoid the stricter requirements of a jumbo loan.

And it sounds like that's your intent - to hold and build on it for productive use.So the key is simply that you make sure to purchase at least as much you sell if you want to avoid all tax. 

What we ideally would like to do would be to make this property into our primary residence for a couple of years and then sell the property, of course to avoid the capital gains tax.