Some additional tips include automating your savings through automatic transfers, tracking your progress with budgeting apps or spreadsheets, cutting unnecessary expenses, and exploring side hustles for extra income.

If the house is in bad shape you should identify how much of an investment for renovation it will probably need (include some hourly rate for your work into it even if that is not actually paid and include work estimates for anything you can't do yourself).

Block the chimney, make sure it is non functional, and include that in the lease.

The cash invested includes my original down payment and an estimation of what the building and furnishing costs have been for the ADU.

That is by definition of a dwelling unit from Article XII in the Land Development Code which I have included below.Dwelling Unit: A room or groups of rooms forming a single independent habitable unit that is used for, intended to be used for, or may be used for, living, sleeping, sanitation, cooking, and eating purposes by one family only; for owner occupancy or for rental, lease, or other occupancy on a weekly or longer basis.A dwelling unit shall contain an individual kitchen, as defined herein, sanitary and sleeping facilities.

However, we can build one out of combining the following: Getting a good attorney that practices this area of law, own property in land trusts, obtain property and casualty (liability) insurance, pay for umbrella liability insurance, personal property trusts, proper maintenance, documenting all property maintenance requests and completions, screen all future residents over the age of 18, screen all contractors, collect W-4s from all hires and file 1099s, change the locks between residents and the list goes on.

You should always be able to get a straight answer - but its going to depend on the loan product type - conventional with hard hard and set rules, Non-QM/DSCR these are likely going to differentiate in some ways (including this area) among lenders, so it can be different by lender.Some DSCR Lenders for example are OK with Short Term Rentals which obviously wont have a lease (but may require other documentation like a listing or history). 

I had one tenant who bred pitbulls in a neighborhood where i own 16 units on the block. 5 of me tenants plus my handy man had purchased a dog from them and out of all 5 that moved out including the breeder every single property had damage to moldings doors and walls from dog scratches.

Now I'm slowing getting all my tax docs ready for my CPA but I'm confused on how bookings in Dec 2023 affect my 2023 taxes.So for the bookings that happened at the end of last year Dec 2023 but didn't get paid out until Jan 2024, do I include these bookings/income for the 2023 tax year? 

Everything else, including whether to invest locally or in other markets comes secondary.