If it is brownfield and you're going to clean it up, they might talk.If it is just kind of a run of the mill deal, I don't think you get any break on taxes. 

There's tons of different ways this can go.... if he is someone that doesn't NEED the passive income, I would recommend multi-fam property w/ 25% down in a strong B or better neighborhood where he can at least break even and focus on a market with strong appreciation and rent growth. overtime, his cash flow will increase, and his net worth on paper will grow significantly. 

If you put a ton of debt on that same property you might break even or actually start losing money every month. 

My goal is more for passive income/break even along with wealth later in life, currently 35 YO.

I want to break into investing via private equity because loans with interest/origination fees aren't allowed in my religion.

Plus, it takes several years to break even on the closing cost and first few years of payments are mainly applied toward the interest and less to the principal.

My advice for start up builder is U need to pay cash for the dirt to get your best loan terms.. also going to have to partner with a GC that has good experince your GC is going to either make you or break you as noted above.

The rent to price ratio's look really good for Texas (as well as compared to national levels) and my models cashflow at 20% down if the rate is at 5% or lower, really at the current rates its more breakeven but there Refi potential over the coming years and there is appreciation upside in my opinion with the new Tom Thumb, HEB, and Target breaking ground this year making Forney a more classic style suburb.

I am looking to at least break even in California.

The potential issue is that he may have gotten his interest rate when rates were lower and you may get the deal at a higher interest rate which can potentially have the deal at break even or at a loss.The quality of the deal will depend on what your net income is and what you are putting into the deal.If in the above example and you have the same net income, the deal sounds amazing if you are putting in $200,000 because you have a 10%+ rate of return.But if you are putting in $2,000,000 the deal is horrible because you are making 1%