@Derek BuehnerThe timing of your improvements plays a big role in determining their tax deductibility.

If your realtor is listing it for free and not helping, that's not much help since leaving you to screen tenants and run through leads is like asking you to perform knee surgery, you don't know what you are doing.All rental listings should get bombarded on Zillow Rental Manager and HotPads, etc in the first week so if you have limited activity, your price is either too high or the photos are bad and the copy about the place is bad.Use something like RentSpree from screening.

If you don't report the income, it could lead to an audit. 

A syndicator cannot have as sole role raising money.  

I started my investment journey when I took on a w-2 role working between property management, and tenant relations as a Community Coordinator for a 254-unit apartment community.

It sounds cheesy, but the best way to prepare is to work with a friend or two and role-play.

Fewer than 20 have signed up.You can lead a horse to water...

Also keep in mind, terms other than price will play a role in getting you offer accepted too.

All my peers and clients who previously bought tax sale properties moved away from the strategy a number of years ago so I don't have any recent experiences to go off of,  but wouldn't be surprised if the lead time is longer this time of year due to the holidays. 

Booking lead time has been dramatically dropping over the last couple of years, and people booking week of is becoming more common, especially for smaller places.