One thing to be aware of though is that rental income from the Fort Collins house will not show up until the following year's tax return, so that may cause issues in qualifying, depending on the lender. 

(seeing as his damage is the direct cause of the apartment not being suitable for rent in April)Sorry if these are dumb questions, I'm just not sure what to do.I cannot do the work myself as usual, I am pending surgery for my right arm, and it is currently very limited in use.Therefore I am needing to hire people to do it for me.

If I were you, I would look for a multi-unit property where you can let your tennants pay your rent.A job and some savings would certainly help your cause, but not necessarily a prerequisite.Good luck on your journey and I hope this helps.Ed

My concern is with writing off my expenses from the renovation… I'm concerned it may lower my net income for the past year to the point where it could cause me to not qualify for any additional mortgages due to the lower net income.

Galvanized steel, if used, could cause you a big headache in the long run due to rusting/corrosion issues. 

@Caleb Heimsoth You can use what is called the 50% to run a preliminary estimate of expenses on potential rental purchases.Ex; House rents for $950 assume that you will need to spend $475 to operate said property every month.This is of course just an estimate as there is always an unlimited number of variables at play which will cause your property to perform better or worse than any pro forma at any given point in time.

As a Mortgagee you don't control the property, so a borrower who might over capitalize an investment may also stick to an unrealistic sale price which prolongs the sale which can eventually cause delinquency and default.  

What if the higher costs locally cause a significant delay in our ability to buy anything?

I would pass, with an ARV of 40k or so, there's not much room for error and foundation could cost alot to fix, or could be simple, just depends on what's causing the problem.

So I listened and I kid you not on day 2 the speaker not only said word for word the tool box analogy I've heard in the videos here on BP, she also said driving for dollars is for stupid people cause no one really does that.