Would it make sense to take our 25% downpayment and purchase 2 homes in another state rather than spend all of our equity on one home around the Boston area just because it is close?

Is it worth spending even $1.00 PSF if your PM can avoid this by working hard for you to get a renewal? 

I get it, minimal spend for maximum appraisal.Should I be working with my own appraiser to target exactly what we should do to increase the value.

In Texas,  only IRS, Child support, mechanics liens(only if it had to do with that property) and a few other would attach due to our homestead protections

When people stop spending, businesses suffer and as a result they let go of more people.

Things are really now starting to snow ball and it has got me starting to think of diversifying some into index funds and maybe some bonds to great another layer of FIRE protection.

I currently work at Nellis AFB but my goal is to get out of government and spend the rest of my years working for myself.

To do it right you need to select an acquisition criteria; use a credible data source for real time, specific assessor data; spend time to research the area & understand pricing; and mail legitimate ACTUAL offers directly to sellers.Sure, there is a lot more that goes into it, but that’s the “big picture” about how we find off market deals and flip for profit.  

A big question is; are you prepared to spend the money to update his apartment asap if he moves?

The CPA you spoke to was right, there are tremendous tax benefits for what the IRS calls "real estate professionals" The basic criteria is twofold: 1) you must engage more that half of your 'working' time in real estate related activities. 2) You must spend at least 750 hours involved in RE.What is considered real estate involvement?