Following - I'm based in California

A fix and flip is based on your credit, assets and most importantly the property itself. 

if cashflow is the goal, then a) choose a market to invest in that's cashflow-heavy, first and foremost. note: living in a property for a year doesn't necessarily build equity. your principle paydown year 1 ain't much & if the market dips a bit, you could have no or negative equity at the end of y1. just something to consider.note: appreciation in general is speculation. we can make educated guesses on what's going to happen, based on what HAS happened, but this isn't the 'perk of RE investing' to focus on when you know your goal is cashflow. ignore appreciation for now.if the goal is cashflow, why not just start with a rental?

So like the example you gave, there are fewer lenders doing 75% ARV, but many more lending down to 70%, so at that amount there might be more options.I hope that helps, would be happy to jump into more specifics with some more details about the flip itself.

Based on cursory reading looks like your purchase might qualify for USDA B&I.

I am also going to required annual increases in rent based on the CPI index, among a few other things.Does anyone have experience with this?

Call a local commercial real estate broker and get a Broker's Opinion of Value, or ask for current cap rates based on the Class of property.

You basically need to assign a value to all of the personal property (furniture, appliances, TVs, kitchen supplies, etc) inside the STR and they'll send you a tax bill based on the total. 

Hi Patricia,I would recommend speaking to Realty Exchange Corp, they specialize in everything 1031 exchange and are based in Virginia.

Based on what I have heard there are two tests we have to pass in order to be qualified as a contractor.