Actually, the best strategy is to operate your business, incur valid business expenses, keep meticulous records so your CPA can slap the auditor down when they audit you.I have been audited many times over the years by the IRS and several states.

Taking advantage of the election without declaring that you are doing so can cause those expenses to be reversed in the event of an audit or inquiry.  

Yes, auditors are not bad people (I was an auditor once).

I have studied by personally driving through the neighborhoods, noting investor activity, monitoring the patterns and numbers of foreclosure, monitoring the prices/comps, monitoring county auditor records, and having good chats with my mortgage broker friend who also has bought in the area.I am so confident that buying and holding in this area could turn out to be quite profitable in the future.  

I worked in public accounting for a few years as an auditor before transitioning to an internal accounting/finance role at a local tech company.

If an auditor or examiner goes through a loan file, they can look back as far as they like, bank statements, income, tax records, assets, liabilities and how you use money. 

You can also sometimes pull the information from the auditor website.

Property taxes are insane, if you follow the auditor's instructions for underwriting.Different elements here, but fit into the same bucket.

That reaks and creates lots of issues with auditors.

On the county auditor's website you can search for properties that the LLC currently owns but I don't think there's a way to search for properties that they've ever owned in the past.http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/