I was broke and bought my first two rentals from a HELOC.

Imagine you bought a property for $2M.The land (excluding any structures) is valued at $400K.Since land is not depreciable in the eyes of the IRS, we subtract the land value from your purchase price to get your depreciable basis.Your depreciable basis is simply where a cost seg engineer starts from when allocating your eligible assets into either 5, 7, or 15 year property.In the scenario above, your starting basis would be $1.6M since your basis = your purchase price - the land value.Having an accurate land value is essential to getting your depreciation/bonus depreciation calculations right.This is the starting point for any cost seg study that you do.

Never bought home before and learning as I go.  

I do like some Dollar tree conversions from older pharmacy stores in good locations.

I do have experience with significant home renovation but for a personal residence, based on my experience with this I would prefer to buy a property built after 1970 if possible but not sure if that's realistic, the only deals I could seem to find from the MLS are very old houses which I know often brings more challenges with the renovation.Would appreciate any references or suggestions anyone has, so far I've only invested in rental properties that were already in good condition bought with a loan.

At the hardware store buy the spray cans that reach out to 20 feet for around $10.  

Quote from @Sandeep K Mamidi: We have over the years bought and sold several rental properties in FL, AZ and TX (Pretty Passive)Want to become more active with Flips and grow our wealth using innovative strategies and expand into Multi Family Real EstateCongrats.

I read that book and bought my first out of state property right after.

Especially since later you're going to have the rooms full of furniture, and have to block off time with no bookings.I bought my STR with carpet in the 4 bedrooms and didn't have the budget then to replace them with hard flooring.

Purchase price: $50,000 Sale price: $160,000 Contributors: Peter Vekselman Partner Driven and Archie Raglin bought this Pleasant Hill property on Benton St for $50,000.