It is also possible to handle a turnaround in 2 days including paint and carpet. 

My advice when looking at a house hack is to not get too in the weeds on how the property or building performs compared to other properties in the area, but rather view it from the lens of what it will do your personal finances and the impact it will have on your personal cost of living.  

I invested in 7 syndication funds in 2023 as a limited partner with the expectation that I would generate first year losses from cost segregation that I could use to offset my gains on my personal real estate investments (self storage). 

So, I think how you handled it was fine, but keep in mind you are a neighbor and if a random neighbor asked you that you MIGHT help them out if you were BFFs or you might respond as you did it if you weren't as friendly.

Response to #1: Some lenders allow for layered entities while others want warm bodies/natural persons to be direct managers.

No there is still one person living there right now. 

You don't want a person living in a place with that in the basement.

Typically that's the roll of a business broker vs real estate agent, although sometimes one person does both.   

Hoping to start flipping homes personally as well! 

My first two properties are still in my personal name and I actually need to switch that up finally, so thank for the reminder.Nonetheless, you can definitely still open up an LLC, I just try to avoid putting the cart before the horse.