Who paid the $20,000 original cost of the home? 

After nearly a year of construction and about $40K in costs, all that had gotten done was the laying of the plumbing and foundation, the prior of which my contractor had to redo.

Keep separate accounts for real estate income and costs.

And the soft costs can easily pass 100K before your project even starts. 

I did not do this with two partnerships and one ended in a lawsuit and the other cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

The property hasn’t pulled in a lot to cover the cost but for safety I can manage fixing some within budget. 

Found following information about building permits on City Data: https://www.city-data.com/city/Calera-Alabama.html2022: 125 buildings, average cost: $155,700 2021: 216 buildings, average cost: $156,200 2020: 322 buildings, average cost: $144,500 2019: 213 buildings, average cost: $147,600Regarding Property appreciation: This property was sold last november for 269K and there is a similar property on this street that has been sold for 289k on March 12th that is last month.

Get with a good agent who understands short term rentals because the more of these you do then you can scale the insurance under a Business Owner Provider Policy (BOP) and then you don't end up with a dozen individual policies out there for each property that cost you a fortune.

For cost effectiveness we are using Citizens but he has several options to choose from.

Negative CF is an added cost that defeats the purpose of buying RE.