Bottom line being that I bought them with a negative cash flow and with a tremendous amount of equity, but I had a very precise exit strategy in cashing out my equity before the negative cash flow ate my lunch.

When the lake started to recede and the salt water level intensified until it killed off all the sea life and slowly ate away at paint, metal, wood or anything else in its way, the Great Salten Sea became an abandoned ghost town and refuge for motorcycle gangs, drug runners, illegal's and just about any/all undesirables that could survive there. 

I've never met you, but I file a lawsuit right now and claim you ate my dog.

Just make sure you learn the market to a tee and also build a team in the market to help you jump in.Be careful and conservative in your financials!

Check the FTC's case page periodically.those pleadings are well written.. and basically describe the real estate training and seminar business to a tee. 

Both ate very good for networking and education.

That’s a really tough call, I just sold a property and ate the tax, granted it was relatively low, going through this exercise with a family member right, I’d probably lean toward’s “overpaying” for something to avoid the huge tax hit, but so much of it, is really a question of if you don’t mind managing the properties than yeah 1031 is probably best, if you hate it might be the marginal return of probably an extra 5-6k a year isn’t worth it.

2.Also, when we came up to stay in the location (Ocean City, Maryland) to look for houses and stayed in hotels and ate out can we deduct that as well in "travel" category?

The thing I hate about mortgage brokers is they sell your loan to another bank so the rules ate pretty set in stone and they can't really makr exceptions.

Nothing about $5000 did not fix and I was afraid to turn into insurance so I ate it all.