Quote from @Charlotte Wilson: Maybe I am overthinking this but when I look at properties to purchase that I plan to rent out, how do I make sure I am including all the potential additional “cost” besides the mortgage and property taxes?

Our mortgage at the moment is around $2100 including taxes and insurance, this would obviously go up if we do refinance.

My question is, what is the best way to describe this scenario for tax purposes.  

I don't know the answers on taxes, but New Jersey is the densest state in America.

Your total project cost is only ~ $143k. 3c) Your interest rate is probably going to be in the low to mid 7s, at least4) All states/areas are different, but I usually see with my CFO clients that their property taxes are higher than their insurance, with taxes often 1.5x higher than insurance.5) Lastly, I saw PM fee of 8%, are you paying someone else to manage this?

I'd say the biggest landmine to watch out for is our property taxes.

Taxes and requirements should be much lower for a LTR

Assuming your debt is SUPER cheap and only costs you 12% you’ll save $22,800 TAX FREE  So the combination is saving $60k at 12% (or more) is $7,200/yr and $130k in the bank at only 4.5% is another $5,850/yr  so you’re over $13k GUARANTEED instead of a chance to make $7,200 before taxes  

It's very disingenuous to blame the overall poor performance on Covid and not even mention the property tax expense issue.

That’s your home mortgage interest as well as property tax and insurance for 2nd half of the year.