@Reid Chauvin brings up an awesome point about getting qualified for the loan so I'll focus a little more on the area.You're going to have a damn near impossible time finding a single family home that cash flows as a traditional rental in Nashville.

With my current income and expenses it would be difficult to qualify for a traditional mortgage.

What makes it interesting is it has several parcels of land with the sale of the house which we could probably sell off the larger parcel for about 25-30% of the total purchase price.I know the basics of Section 121 but I'm trying to understand if there is a way to extract value from our equity position in our current house to make this a better choice than finding a straight rental.Current house Purchase $215K Current Value $280-290KOwe $160k 15 year mortgage at 2.75%Mortgage + Tax + Insur $1450Possible Rent $1800-2000Possible Live-In FlipPurchase $300KRepairs ~$20k-40kARV $325-350k (excluding land to be sold off)Land Parcel Value to be sold off $80k-100kI would love to hear your creative thoughts on this situation and how I can optimize.Thanks!

We would really appreciate any advice on what types of account we should use to invest our money aside from a traditional taxable brokerage account.

On a traditional loans your credits cannot go towards your down payment to a degree usually just count on putting the minimum down on a loan as a down payment and negotiating other costs as a credit.

In addition, in this market, depending on the area, 8% COC return on a traditional 20-25% down is pretty good in my opinion.

3) 10% for a commercial building is hard to get, but since he will be owner-occupied, he may be able to get traditional financing at 70-75% and get another 10-20% from the IDA or SBA. 

In my gut there was something off but maybe i was scared or nervous to make the wrong choice?

@Julie Verardi  are they obligated to shovel and get a $40 discount each time it snows or do they have a choice to shovel or not? 

If incomes don't keep rising, prices will soon hit a ceiling.Second, and related, the Fed is becoming increasingly hawkish -- they have no choice but to increase interest rates this year to fight rising inflation.