Your income isn't high enough for it to make sense as a rental and the closer you get to your residence limit the greater pressure you will have to sell it before losing your exclusion in whole or part. 500k right now can make $15k per year income with zero maintenance or tenant risks. 

I had planned on buying a new primary residence  that needs a rehab that i can get way under market value.

land sale is in Northern PA, but we are currently NY residents. 

Anything I need to be aware of or make sure they do for my protection?

Explore multifamily or out-of-state investments for higher yields.Setting up an LLC provides liability protection but has no tax benefit for you now.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

In short, I purchased my primary residence in 2017.

Use tax benefits like depreciation, repair deductions, and tax-free refinance proceeds to offset income, and consider an LLC for liability protection.

my condolences on your recent lost.there are a few ways you can do this, as mentioned above you can take a heloc on your primary residence which will give you a second mortgage, first mortgage payment wont be impacted. you can do cash out refinance which will give you one mortgage and payment. it will pay the old mortgage and give you money in your pocket to pay for the rehab.or you can do a renovation refinance which is similar to cash out refinance but we would contractor involved  as part of the refinancing and they are paid through the loan

Investment Info:Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Hello,I have noticed that more and more property managers are charging tenants ~2-3% of rent + $30 as admin fee/resident package/utility package.