To summarize, renting can be a decent, low risk option -- especially if you can find a month-to-month very close to your work. 

They will teach you hard lessons that can be summarized by, "desperate people will say & do desperate things - no matter what you've done for them in the past!"

The CPA's above seem to have answered your question comprehensively, and just to summarize, you don't necessarily have you wait 5 full years, just fulfill 2 years of primary occupancy *within* the last 5 years. 

You can make money on empty lots but this is the method (summarized, of course): 1.

I live in Oregon.To summarize:1.

The debate can be summarized as: For smaller properties trailing financials have many reasons to be wonky, but many believe it is a good signal of transparency and (as @Ben Leybovich points out) this higher variance is exactly why due diligence on the leases can be more important for smaller properties.Line between "commercial" and "residential" seems to be driven mainly by number of units (i.e. is it eligible for FHA loan), even though many commercial banks will underwrite loans on residential properties with fewer than 5 units (especially at larger loan sizes).Is 7809-7815 Franklin a hot deal?

@Russ Mooneyhan, to answer your question, and summarize a lot of the responses below: No, there is no specific tactic that people use.  

To summarize -  Invest 50, get 120% back in the first year and then 10% every year thereafter?

You still haven't admitted that his numbers were fairly accurate.Second, the article summarizes the video (which I can't watch because I don't have a paid account).

So like an employee would get a W2 that summarizes their income and taxes taken out, a 1099 is a statement of income, but typically with NO taxes taken out - just a straight payment amount.