I found this out completely by luck when I discovered our 4 year old Lennox A.C. unit was blowing hot air.

I guess that's part of what I'm trying to discover.

I've grown tired of my "9-5" and thought I'd revisit the idea of doing something real estate related.My immediate goal is to discover what opportunities exist that would be a good use of my technical background, but I'd also like to explore the rental and rehab aspects.I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you!

Discovering bigger pockets has been amazing and an eye opening moment in my life!

Some cities, communities, neighborhoods, etc, don't allow short term rentals (some HOA communities for example).With that said, I don't see why it would be a problem.

Stay in your job if that is what you want, but quitting your job in a relatively short period of time is possible. 

Based on what you wrote, short of paying cash, that's your only option.

Others might be fine with taking risk, but least by doing this a person can get an idea of what might go wrong.e) Legal document analysis: it will usually take a few days to go through the legal document properly, as almost inevitably there are tons of gotchas that either have to be explained, or mitigated with a side letter.That is the very short summary of what I do.

Ask anybody that has a true background in these sciences.In short, tobacco involves burning something. 

The new contractor may discover quality/installation issues from the previous contractor.