The only difference is that there might be an explainable rationale for holding on to a property, such as a well-founded belief that equity gains are coming (such as owning a house in a rapidly growing area or property where the next commercial boom is headed), whereas with gambling your odds never change regardless of your losses.

For the purpose of, say, minimizing capital gain in the same year. 

At the early stages, the more control you have over your real estate, the better returns thus I recommend investing locally to make your dollar go that much farther and gain a good familarity with real estate before exploring out of state investing.

That way we could either claim expenses as deductions or through depreciation, rather than just as an increase in basis for capital gains if it was our primary residence? 

And if your appreciation is 4% a year, that would be a gain of another 7,600 a year. 

There are a ton of Facebook pages you can gain insight and possible renters from. 

The suspended losses can used to offset the capital gains from the sale of the property or to offset deprecation recapture.

Portfolio = Income derived from financial instruments like dividends (including REITs), interest, royalties, and capital gains.Mostly income w/out loss potential, and favorable tax rates.Cap losses may offset cap gains w up to $3,000 loss.

As you gain experience on what you really couldn’t learn from books or podcasts, you will have the fallback of the annuities to bail you out.

I am selling a property in CA with a pretty hefty gain (great!)