@Linda Weygant reply was great. @Jeremy Rhodes her advice was great and also lots of other great advice here from others but hers spoke to me. I re-entered the real estate investing world in 2016 after a several year break. But this time instead of dabbling I went all in and grew a portfolio of properties quickly, trading some stock market investment $ for real estate portfolio investment $. I expected for every 10k invested I'd see 1.5k of cash flow (or whatever I thought, I don't remember.) and I expected all these amazing tax benefits right off the bat. But the benefits both on cash flow and on taxes I am pretty certain are a long term strategy just like most other types of investing. One of my properties if I sold it today I would probably sell it for 50%+ of the price I paid in 2016, at least. Even though that's not a personal residence, with the passive carry forward losses whatever gain I have on that sale would be mine tax free (unless I choose to 1031 exchange it into another investment and defer taxes entirely.) And don't forget that maybe more than the cash flow, a long term benefit/outcome of real estate investing is some day, you are going to wake up and have many income producing assets that you own outright. Like little employees who work for you, and have value, for the rest of the time you decide to own them.
