So I am wondering whether it is legal to claim both home office benefit and free from FICA on Rental income from IRS, or otherwise you have to select one of them.

Prior to selecting a brokerage, I asked the manager how they felt about creative financing and my solicitation of efforts with those that would utilize such.

I want to get the most out of my marketing budget and need to select the best leads, but I don't quite understand the types of properties I am most interested in acquiring and which ones will be best.

LA is actually decent for that because of the generally low cap rates, as small increases in rent have an exponential effect on value.

The funny thing is I just read a great article this morning from BP about how to select a property manager.

You could effectively get it done with no liquidity by posting collateral or doing a HELOC on one of your other properties, but then once again is the pitfall of over-leveraging.

So any unexpected occurrence starts a domino effect with other expenses.

Check the laws in your state.Unless it's already disallowed by law in your state, as a wholesaler, you gain equitable interest by having an effective (signed by both buyer and seller) sales contract with EMD attached.  

have seen homes on similar size lots go for around 150k. the land is just sitting there for several years going on decades. the shrubs seem to be well on their way into growing into trees; is there like a service that clears lots for a fee, or maybe it would be more cost effective to put a (manufactured?)

We typically use the following allowances:Revenue:     Vacancy   8 - 10% (even though the vacancy in our areas is running from 4 - 6%).Operating Expenses:Maintenance and repar:  10% (of effective gross revenue)Property Management:   7 - 10% (of effective gross revenue)Reserves:CAPEx reserve:    8 - 10% depending on the age and condition of the property and its major systems.