Trey...I was reading over your post about renting your house to yourself. I get the idea and the reasons you would want to do this. As I read over the IRS code that others had posted about self rentals I had another idea that may help you. IF (big IF) you found someone you could trust that had the same goals with self renting and had a similar valued home...you could "own" their home and rent to them and they could "own" your home and rent it to you. You'd both benefit from the "potential" loss that occurs (just like with any rental unit). As the property owner you could rent the unit with all utilities paid for by the landlord and all lawn maintenance paid for by the landlord. The landlord then writes those expenses off as business expenses. The rent amount paid could be on the very low end of the marketplace thereby keeping any profit to a minimum. Sure you would potentially lose the tax benefit at the time of a sale and if your state offered any homestead protection you'd lose out on that. BUT, the potential benefits could far outweigh the downside. Another thing that could push you to want to consider this is the new tax laws. If indeed you are not able to write off state income tax and more importantly PROPERTY taxes against your income this could be big....especially in a state like Texas where our property taxes are sky high.
I applaud you for thinking outside the box. For the negative nellies who shot you down, let them keep doing it the same way everyone has done it for years. "If it were that easy, everyone would do it.".
I'm not on BP that much but feel to reach out if you have other questions for me.
