Turns out the investor who purchased b4 me and started work was in a situation took the loss and has other profitable ventures. what's your all-in price? 

Tax benefits can help make a better business deal, but a bad business deal is hardly ever going to break even just because of tax benefits.The other big consideration you should have, in order to actually benefit from real estate fueled losses or credits, it will require a substantial investment of time - either to get over the material participation thresholds for short term rentals, or to get over the real estate professional thresholds for mid term /  traditional rentals. 

I learnt my lesson to just cut my losses and move on and not sit and fight with such people.

With this strategy, you don’t need to qualify as REPS status to be able to take your real-estate losses.

Buy out the properties mortgages and sell it for a loss and try to minimize the total loss?

You do need to consider multi-state taxation and passive activity losses when doing this.

Don't be house poor or you may be houseless when the next downmarket, job loss, recession, or stubborn leak shows itself.If anyone is looking for advice on small software companies, or agencies, or balancing a startup during a day job, I will try to reply or answer DMs as best possible.

The nice part about real estate, however, is that since a property's tax value is depreciated over the course of 27.5 years (39 for commercial) that depreciation is considered a "loss" and counts against any positive cash flow you had.

Loss of privacy.  

Between paint and flooring that are sometimes needed, and months of vacancy, it would take me YEARS to recoup those losses even with new rent increases.