The delivery guy told the local animal control. 

If I were in your and/or your mother-in-laws shoes, I would go to a local bank and use the free and clear house to secure a $150K+ line of credit. 

Detroit requires strong local relationships to navigate things like neighborhood nuances and property management effectively.

I'm going to be taking some time to get to know people in my market as I kind of want to start local in Las Vegas.

Find a local one.  

Since you're still living in the property, you might be able to house hack and keep the lower owner-occupied tax rate—worth confirming with a local tax advisor.

Does your local jurisdiction require you to return those fees if they were not screened? 

No, you cannot create phantom losses this way.Some additional issues that we have not addressed:- holding rentals inside an S-corp has many tax disadvantages- you will likely jeopardize your $250k/$500k capital gain exclusion for homesteads- you will lose asset protection afforded to personal residences by most states- you will lose your homestead exemption for local property tax - your insurance will have to change from owner-occupied to rental, i.e. go up- and there's moreConclusion: there're reasons why nobody is doing this clever "strategy" but A+ for trying.

In 2022 the rents increased 12.1% year over year which was the 3rd highest in the entire country per https://www.axios.com/local/cleveland/2023/02/14/cleveland-rent-prices.

If you’re open to diving deeper into the Memphis market, I’d be happy to share more insights & connect you with local investors I currently work with that have seen recent success here!