I think there is a chance that you don't actually hate your rentals, but rather, you hate where your mental health/stress level/amount of free time is.

At this point I need assistance and advice for the up-front (call it "back of the napkin") assessment to determine if it's worth moving forward on.

Determined to buy a house to fix and flip and looking to find someone I can connect with to maybe show me the ropes!

If its positive it adds to your job/self employment income as a total income figure to determine your DTI or debt to income. 

Nothing on vacancy rates though.When I was trying to determine demand for Cincinnati, I selected about 20 listings near the location I was focused on, and tracked them for several months.

On many of our web sites there will also be calculators to help you determine what your tax liability would be.There are a number of folks like us right here on BP who are qualified intermediaries. 

Start-up costs are also deductible but are amortized over 15 years with a limit of 5k.Start-up costs have strict rules and your case might not be the same as this one.Case Summary:Timeline line of eventsStarted investigating property: FebPut first contract (canceled): MayBought first property: December 30thWhether a taxpayer is engaged in a trade or business is determined using a facts and circumstances test under which courts have focused on the following three factors that indicate the existence of a trade or business:Whether the taxpayer undertook the activity intending to earn a profit;Whether the taxpayer is regularly and actively involved in the activity; andWhether the taxpayer's activity has actually commenced.On the basis investor testimony, we may assume that he undertook this activity to make a profit and that he regularly and actively engaged in it.

If he recently lost someone in his family, he may not be in a mental space to process what you need.

Lenders often use this to determine if they can extend further financing, so knowing this could give us a better idea of how much equity you can tap into.How much in carrying costs are you expecting to need during construction?

The tenant is mentally unstable, didn't pay rent over a year, got evicted, forced out by the Sheriff and kept coming back to the property by breaking locks and lock picking.