But some of it involves issues with taxes that are out of my depth.

Then you can read a more in-depth book like The Book On Rental Property Investing by @Brandon Turneror The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Spencer Strauss.2.

Keeping it vacant for a period of time is not likely to change things, but I cannot tell this for certain without an in-depth discussion.The bigger unit has been converted from rental to personal and then back to rental.

It's largely based on what you want or need as a real estate investor.FYI -- I covered this in some detail and depth in one of my earlier episodes titled, "Choosing the Right Neighborhood" (episode PREI 007).Hope that helps you out.Continued success!

@Joshua Ferrari thank you so much for that in depth reply!

During the depth of the great financial collapse, the best real estate investment strategy was to buy foreclosed homes. 

An advantage of that is the if there are varied joist widths and depths it can fully fill the cavity.

I expect it to likely occur in some asset classes in CRE, and I won't be surprised if resi sees at least some sort of a dip, but the breadth and depth of any real estate downturn is still, to a great extent, anyone's guess.Happy investing,Troy

On the other hand, if you think rates are going to go down, the yield maintenance might be too big of a risk and you would want to consider doing the step down prepayment penalty structure.I think I might right an article about this calculation in depth but I need to get motivated to do it first.

I just sent you a DM to provide a video explains those options more in depth.