phone calls or accepting 2 dozen applications from hosting open houses and keeping them all in the loop/providing proper denial letters.

You’re leaving yourself wide open for a fair housing violation without set parameters. 

I'm open to suggestions on beginner books to start on (just finished Rich Dad Poor Dad) and anything I can do to get started now (house hacking isn't an option for me).

Nobody else is using the space of the garden.Its open. 

We know our own area well, and can almost always find deals that we'd like to pull the trigger on, but until we accumulate more cash, we can probably only purchase another $100-120k in property before we slow down and wait for our debt snowball to catch up (pay down the HELOC and eliminate the cheapest mortgage to open up standard financing options again).Here is the conundrum: Another local long term rental (or two) would be a great decision, BUT a beach house sounds like a lot more fun.Specifically, we are 2 hours away from Panama City Beach, and we are curious to get into a new type of real estate.

I'm not sure what the marijuana laws are where you're at, but here we have a lot of people that want to open medical marijuana dispensaries, but most landlords don't want to lease to them because it's such a grey area legally.

I’ve been trying to find some 2-4 unit properties with the intention of renting out all but one unit long term, then leave one unit open for me to go back and forth from Michigan.

We planned to put about 30-40k into it to open up walls, remodel the kitchen and bathroom and possibly even add a bath.

A lot of places will tell you no, but that one yes will get all your cash out and open a lot of doors.

We planned to put about 30-40k into it to open up walls, remodel the kitchen and bathroom and possibly even add a bath.