I am looking for your opinions, advice, horror stories, etc on renting to pet owners.

You need to be around 300k min for it to be worth your time, in my opinion. 

Yes, some folks made a lot without school but with a college degree (good one)  you will have lot more leverage for next 50+ years in your life (i.e. you continue your education with good grade for next 6 years and if you do it right , that 6 years will pay your back for 50+ years to come). 

I want to open up a kitchen, gut two bathrooms, get rid of a 35” x 35” closets, and open up the basement (where I have a couple of walls, floating ceiling and carpeted flooring).Your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

I know that @Shiloh Lundahl often offers education at his meetings and has a way for new investors to learn and invest at the same time.  

Account ClosedSo I'm not very educated/experienced here, which may be a good thing in this case, but why not just ask him to loan you the 5K? 

Home storage has gotten a good bit of negative press and opinion lately, and, of course, the IRC section 4975 text about "providing services" for your IRA assets is something about which you may want to consult with your legal team. 

Any advice, education recommendations, or ideas you all have learned from your RE experiences are greatly appreciated!

Just my personal opinion as someone who has been at this for 28+ years 

I always try and get 2 or 3 people’s opinions on my purchases-and I bait them into why they wouldn’t do the deal to try and hash out the reasons that they might have kept to themselves beforehand.