The home office deduction cannot increase your passive losses:You can only deduct home office expenses up to your net rental incomeIf your rentals are already showing a loss, the home office deduction won't helpExcess deductions carry forward to future yearsMust apply §280A limitations first, then passive loss rulesExample: 🔢Rental Income: $24,000Regular Rental Expenses: -$20,000Net Before Home Office: $4,000Home Office Expenses: $3,000 [using allocations, not the Simplified Method]Result: Can deduct full home officeCounter Example: 🔢Rental Income: $24,000Regular Rental Expenses: -$26,000Net Before Home Office: -$2,000 (Loss)Home Office Expenses: $3,000Result: No home office deduction this year (carries forward)Reality Check: 🤔Let's be honest - while technically you need to:Calculate net rental incomeApply §280A limitations [Consult your CPA on this!]

Don't be suckered into buying cheap properties - unelss you know exactly what you are getting into.Here's some copy & paste advice that applies to just about any Midwest rental market:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Its the nature of the industry full stop.Every TK broker from RTR to Norada to Hartman to Maverick to Real WEalth etc etc has had poor experiences with providers and PM companies..

Thanks @Meghan Carson - looking forward to continuing the journey and learning (and applying!)

If your guests are leaving standard 5-star reviews, that’s great—but if those reviews could apply to any rental in your area, you’re still competing on price.If they’re leaving raving reviews, your property becomes the go-to choice—at premium rates.

The Reno MSA already has natural topographical land constraints, and there have been studies about land "running out" here in less than 10 years. 

I'd really like to see something legal in nature that supports the deal failure, however I'm not sure exactly what to ask for. 

@Daniel HymanThanks for the idea but another problem I have with using the government internet is a lot of things on websites don't work because of the firewall and network settings so when I try to apply for the account it just doesn't go to anything.

I will certainly start educating myself with what you mentioned and I'll absolutely take those steps you mentioned and apply those.

Scale Strategically (if this applies to your goals) Reinvest profits, use the BRRRR method (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), and leverage 1031 exchanges to grow your portfolio tax-efficiently.I'm a mortgage lender at Aslan Mortgage Lending and would love to find time to talk and discuss your journey.