Make sure your lease covers everything; that's easy to say, but impossible to execute.  

1) increase the offer on the listing slightly to compensate for the current owner to do the zoning himself as a contingency of the offer. 2) hire a expediter/zoning lawyer to work on behalf of both of us to get the proper zoning acquired and have a contract in place that says once this action is executed the seller will sell the house only to me. 3) buy the house as is and get it appraised as a single-family home which could ultimately negatively affect my lending power, but once the house is under my ownership I could file for the proper zoning and continue with plans as originally wanted.  4) I read an article that said if I do go under contract for this house the current owner could give written permission for me as the buyer to go ahead and undertake the process of getting the proper zoning acquired.

The best way to serve somebody and create win-win-win situations is knowing what they want and executing accordingly.

My wife is an American from California.

Start the search process online and see if they are members of NARPM (North American Residential Property Managers) associations and how are their reviews online?

Executing a simple, straightforward transaction will prepare you for the 3 month project.

With all the details I’ve given, does it seem as if I can execute BRRRR effectively by doing it this way?

I would follow every step in the process, similar to how I plan on executing my real estate plan.

There is no better way to get experience than house hacking, and it is quite frankly the single easiest strategy to execute.

American Shield is the most popular one I have seen in listings.