If I can flip a home using my own hands and tools, and can evaluate people professionally for court and other high stakes matters, I can be a decent landlord.Sell House scenario:House sells for 550K (worst case), 30K to realtors, pay off 295K mortgage = 225K cash in hand.At a 5% return, 225k generates 628 after 33% taxation.$2200 rent - 628 = 1571/mo cost of livingAt a 4% return (worst case?)

They will avoid licensing and taxation, so don't bother.Deal with complaints as they arise, because there aren't many.  

This allows pass-through (single taxation) of income, and *potentially* some savings on self-employment taxes on part of the income.

I suggest you speak with an accountant in Vietnam that has experience wit the US taxation system.Any attorney should be able to set up an LLC for you.

This is a re-post, but if you haven't seen it, I hope it helps: As it relates to asset protection strategies, think of the work you do with a legal adviser who, upon considering factors such as net worth, estate planning issues and taxation will offer advice regarding entity and ownership issues.

Much of it is universally applicable, but some of it is very U.S.A. specific - areas such as finance, regulation, and taxation are differ in Canada (and again dans la belle province).

Since the process of equalization is to create 'fair' taxation based on the assets you could use it to reverse engineer the Fair Market Value they used.That said, certainly the time which the FMV is actually relevant to the market will matter.

I financed it 100%, and have been paying interest only, so I still owe $550,000.In my original reading up on 1031s, it seemed as though I could just do a 1031, buying a replacement property for at least my realized gain (about $380,000) and avoid any income taxation on the sale.But after more reading, that doesn't seem to be the case?

(As in double taxation)For an LLC in Arizona use Keyt Law.If you are serious about buying in Arizona there are some "local considerations" only someone investing in Arizona would be aware of and a lender or real estate agent aren't going to be your best source for that information.

I would prioritize finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation over one that is local.There are 20+ accountants on this message board who specialize in real estate taxation.