@William Huston, One of the best strategy relating to proper use of Mortgage is to offset your mature properties income with newer properties interest deduction. 1) Mature properties will start to show more taxable income as interest payment decreases with time. 2) So, use newer properties to offset those income. 

If this is the case, we would need either some of the big repairs met, or a pretty drastic decrease in agreed price.

However, what I’m gathering is that what makes it beneficial is that your expenses decrease by having less wear and tear?  

We refinanced our house several years ago to decrease the length of our loan to 15 years which increased our monthly payment a little but has allowed us to make faster gains toward the pay off. 

I highly suggest making sure your lease options contracts are separate and are done correctly in order to decrease liability and maximize your returns.We market our properties by putting signs in the property or by hanging door hangers in the neighborhood.  

@Bei He The only downside to that is you will be bringing down market value to the surrounding houses, if everyone does it, it will decrease all the segment or area down.

hi everyone,According to bestplaces.net stats , the population in Clevland has decreased by almost 19% between the years 2000-2017 (house depreciation 2008-2018: 30%ׁ)If the trend continues , I'm not going to see any appreciation in the near future.My question is how investors have the courage to invest in Cleveland according to this data? 

Thanks  @Jason DiClemente, @Mike D'Arrigo , and @Jaron Walling.Would you say you are seeing a 5-10% decrease in prices during the last quarter of the year?

That will decrease some of that subjectivity you mentioned.  

My concern is over-leveraging... can banks call a HELCO if another 2008 happens and the price of our home decreases... like they can with capital calls on commercial real estate?