Stop the bleeding while you still have blood to bleed. 

There are a bunch of owners on board with me but we are not a rich building where we can afford to be bleed out by a crappy lawyer or spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and have this guy weasle out which he's somehow managed to do in another lawsuit brought by an owner several years ago who caught him not paying his HOA dues.

If you are bleeding (expenses more than income) focus on increasing income first while simultaneously cutting back expenses. 

Just looking for a viable solution to stop the bleeding.

Even if you aren't cash flowing right out of the gate (but not bleeding money, at the same time), you could use these rentals to offset your income come tax time.

Otherwise, I’m just saving cash for future deals and shore up reserves for potential correction to ride that vacancy and not bleed out.

People justify owning them since they just want it, the rental aspect is to offset some of the bleed.

You can be the most tenacious person in the world but if you keep bleeding cash nothing will save you. 

fellow n00b here, so others can comment w much better lists i'd imagine.rich dad poor dad. personally not a fan of the format, but everyone seems to love this one. i read it in highschool but revisited it when beginning REI. despite the meh nature of the writing and anecdotes, there are a handful of principles and concepts that can serve as a sort of Copernican revolution to your outlook on finances, assets, REI, etc. protip: much easier to blaze through the boring portions and still pick up all the goodies when listening in audiobook format at 2-3x speed.multi-family millions by david lindahl was a great read for me. really helped me to dream big on the ultimate direction of my REI journey. i'm nowhere near the apartment complex stage, but many of the concepts bleed over to whatever angle your REI approach may take.ABCs of real estate investing was another beginner's guide that was helpful in orienting my thoughts. gary keller's the millionaire real estate investor is by far the most thorough, comprehensive, and helpful. like i'd mentioned above, i very much wish i'd read this one before getting our first deal. i'm in the middle of another that i can't remember the name of that deals w all the tax loopholes and provisions that REIs get to take advantage of. it's a solid one, but will be mainly used for reference in the future.out of what i've read so far, i'd suggest knocking out rich dad poor dad (again, on audiobook if you can handle that, will make the read much easier imo) and keller's book. orient your high level thinking via RDPD and get you a crapload of tools, charts, figures, ideas, etc. from Keller's nitty-gritty and incredibly practical work in TMREI.happy reading and happy holidays!

One argument is to keep the property and bleed a little bit up front to build equity through appreciation over time.