I strongly advise that you should always have a conversation to have a mortgage professional vet you with basic information first.I could get into a great length of detail on almost everything I touched base on, but I tried my best to keep this short enough to get to the point.

I almost bought a short term rental but I decided to back out of the contract.

Keep it for a short time to keep costs down.

Hello -- I am interested in short-term renting my house for a bit at the end of this year and ran across the 15 day rule for excluding the rental income from taxes.

Here are some rough ideas I have:-What is house hacking-Renting vs investing-Two, three, or four units-Financing options-Rehabbing-Advantages of owning (tax breaks, appreciation)-Short sales/REOs?

Short answer: Yes

This is what I did, rented a townhome for about a year while I shopped around and ultimately bought a short sale at a huge discount as my primary residence and for $0 again with the VA loan. 

I've talked at length with him about buy and hold and other strategies but hadn't had storage on my short term radar.

short track record

Here is a latest one:4 Bed, 1 bath, 1100 sqft in East Tacoma, Residential quiet neighborhood Acquisition Price: $136KRehab Cost: $40KHolding Costs (Short term finance, closing etc.): $10KAfter Rehab Value: $230KWalk-in Equity: $44K (19%)Scope of Work:  Fence, Kitchen-Bathroom complete gut out, new heaters, lighting, interior and exterior paint, floor, windows, door, fence, other handyman fixes, appliances.Congrats to partner @Pradeep Tiwari, Anup ShahThanks to @Timothy Tooker  @Richard Rolle for helping us build the acquisition scienceHere are the pictures:Before:AfterTacoma, Pierce County, THurston County, Puyallup, Seattle, King County