An older responsible couple or even a well established younger couple with one or two children.

There's no statutory holding period that establishes that intent. 

When you've established yourself in the first few deals with the money source, you can command a bigger share of the partnership in subsequent deals.  

.- SEO might seem like a slower approach than targeted ads, but the best part about SEO is that after you've got an established website and become a local authority, you've got a well-oiled machine that should help provide leads whenever someone searches the keywords you've optimized for.- I recommend outsourcing SEO to people in the same time-zone (communication is very difficult/slow when outsourcing to countries that are waking up as you go to sleep) as you and to those who can speak the language you're going to want to optimize your website for fluently.Feel free to ask any specific questions and I'll be glad to answer!

It would be wise to discuss the topic in general with your licensed tax advisor.

Once you are established, you don't want to be known for being the most economical, you want to be the best place to have a vacation.At that point, low rates will start to bring in people that won't necessarily take good care of your property. 

I'm in a similar spot as a relative "newby" and getting the proper education is vital as I'm finding out.I highly recommend the book (I prefer Audible) Loopholes of Real Estate: Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investing (Rich Dad Advisors)It's by Garrett Sutton and will cover your questions as well as info on LLC's.Best of Success!

There data is rather well established, it is going to take years, many years, to catch up on the housing shortage and ramp up construction to parity (where pace of building meets demand at a net 0 factor).

Some cons are higher costs, as @Mohammed Rahman mentioned, lack of established rental history (it might be harder to price accurately), and sometimes higher competition depending on how saturated your local area is with new construction.

You sent someone over and established that the house is the temperature that is set on the thermostat and the furnace is functional?