- What legal steps are prudent regarding a financial partnership with my girlfriend (We are planning to undertake this whole effort together)Who I feel I need to meet with: (This is not a solicitation, this is what I have taken away from "The ABC's of real estate Investment")- Lenders, I need to establish a lending partner who can advise me on my short term options and my long term strategic goals.- Real estate agents, I need to start getting in touch with the current state of the market, and start translating the theoretical book learning into practice. 

My primary residence also has a mortgage.How can I be strategic from a tax perspective with the gain? 

Does this speed up the process of taking some 'next step' ie: so what if you have 2 properties is there some strategic imperative here other than just the pure financials on the properties?

Hello all,I've got a potential deal in the Northridge California (CA) area (San Fernando Valley) in Los Angeles.  I'm trying to run some numbers to see if I can get a deal that's worthwhile.  It's a 5 bed 3 bath home ...

@Cole Hopkins, Your question is more about strategic placement rather than tax implications but as a ball park figure that your basis plus those improvements minus 4 years of depreciation would leave you with a gain of somewhere around $250K of which $220 would be gain at around 19% and 30K at 25%. 

So I've been strategizing how to start my RE profile in the next year or so, but the biggest things is saving to get that 10-20% down..

It is extremely effective and you can place it strategically so pets/kids can't get to it. 

I will have to continue to focus on the ratio, ask for those increases and be strategic about when I apply for personal credit vs looking for a loan for the properties.

Strategic alliances - a corollary of word of mouth marketing, but one that is more focused is what I call finding and cultivating strategic alliances.

At least we have a heads up to strategize and plan.