Buy and hold is just something I don't have much experience in, but if it's more of an optimal strategy in the Denver metro area it might be something I need to look a little more deeply at.I am surprised to hear your comment on flips though, is the market just a little past the flip stage?

@Timothy ChurchI was just taking an online real estate modeling course and I think the leveredIRR and unleveredIRR would be good models to optimize paying off the loan.  

My failed expectation of safety is rooted in the frequent early morning visitors often get the wrong house on the first try, theoretically allowing for a dope head to walk into my house at any hour, the fact that the son is still at large and we could be raided by the State Police again at any moment, and the fact that the secluded nature of the area makes our side of the property easily surveilled by the other side - which is not optimal when my wife is home alone.My landlord is now seeking damages for the lost rent and has served me with an eviction notice. 

Might be other factors though.Sure not everybody has a soul-sucking existence and many would still want to work their W2 anyway, for as long as they can - that's the optimal situation, and I hope everybody could experience this, but let's assume for the sake of discussion that this is not the case for everybody.

& @Mark Sewell - you must use DM properly for it to work, and there are some tricks to optimize. 

They have more incentive to optimize rents that the <5 unit RE which should strive to minimize vacancies.Now the bad, your maintenance/cap expense is too low. 

For example, do you recommend always bringing in an HVAC specialist, roofing specialist, plumbing specialist, electrical specialist, etc just to make sure that part of the potential rental is working optimally.

It's come back up but after a couple tenants and a few learning experiences, operations are going well and the capital gains exemption window has expired, so I've left it as a rental even though it's sub-optimal as one (acreage doesn't bring money).Obviously, I've felt the pain and know there's risks.Compromises and optionsI suspect investing activity would require re-deploying of retirement capital as I'm basically barely paying expenses right now on $6k take-home.   

I think $100 is optimal. 

I am trying to determine what the best strategy is to utilize the 100% bonus depreciation for rental properties. What property types/ number of units/ remodel or not give me the best chance to have a high percentage o...