However, rates have since moved upward.A 30-year fixed rate mortgage is once again sitting around 7% interest:The real estate industry hoped 2024 would see a recovery in which mortgage rates fell and home sales climbed.

The bank will sell notes to other banks, mortgage companies, dealers and those who hold the proper license in a mortgage industry activity, just not to Joe.

Your insurance company likely has a no smoking clause on your policy and will back you up as you suspect this.

His lawyer even told our lawyer he had a crappy case.I was a bit annoyed that our insurance company settled for a $70K payout. 

Without running any specific numbers yet, and ignoring my 200k loan repayments for now, if I my rent income minus property taxes, insurance etc and everything else related to the expenses of the property (again, ignore the 200k loan repayments) comes out to anything beyond 12000 annually in the first year I'll probably be relatively satisfied with that outcome. 

The longer the maturity rate of the bond, the higher the yield is to compensate an investor for the additional risk they are taking on with a longer dated bond.Stocks that pay divideneds....insurance companies have a lower yield than telecom stocks as a reflection that telecoms are higher risk than insurance companies.In the efficient market hypothesis, if markets are efficient then the yields should be reflective of the risk.

The real estate industry has changed a lot in the last 5 years and many real estate brokerages are going down the same path as commercial brokerages.

You might be referring to income / expenses that are reflected by cash.Cash you receive from rentsExpenses that you pay out such as insurance, interest, taxes, etc.You may not have included depreciation expense which would bring your taxable income down further.It may be possible that the negative taxable income would bring your taxable income down.

Does anyone know of any good insurance brokers as well ?

You will truly be raising the clock, as each day will cost you very significant money.  12% interest on $250k is $2500/mo, or about $80 per day in interest, not including your other carrying costs (utilities, property taxes, insurance, HOA).