The deduction is optimized as values increase and can potentially offset the entire net investment (including down payment) for high wage earners.

The best place to start is with a spreadsheet that has every every cost itemized. 

When I consider the risk and the rebuilding costs, I am surprised the insurance is not even higher price.We got a referal for our CA FAIR agent from the RE agent and they were real responsive. 

The easiest way to find and connect with wholesalers is either bigger pockets or by googling "sell my house fast in (town name)" although that may cost them a click for google ads.

Imagine making millions of dollars over the course of your career and then having to pay 30-50% every year to uncle sam instead of compounding that cash over time.This is exactly what real estate professionals have learned to mitigate.To reduce their taxable income, they just buy a building every year, do a cost seg, and use depreciation to reduce their tax liability dramatically.Their personal wealth snowball grows much larger and much faster than their W2 counterparts who give most of their money back to the government each year.Following this strategy as a real estate professional is one of best ways to end up with a much larger net worth at the end of your career.

If transferring the property to an LLC, be mindful of the due-on-sale clause, and note that an LLC itself does not offer tax savings unless electing S-Corp status, which is rare for rentals.To maximize tax benefits, consider cost segregation, bonus depreciation, and short-term rental (STR) strategies, which could allow you to offset W-2 income if structured properly.

Hey @Matt Smith 👋🏽I agree that it's not worth renovating the basement - too costly.

I would tell people today that if you buy a primary residence expect to stay in that home for atleast five years, especially with a FHA loan which has lower down payment as the current forecasts for home appreciation or very low which with closing costs on the buy and sell, it will take several years to have equity in the property and enough to be able to sell, so that is something also to consider.

OR potentially a lease to own option.

Namely, that if a tenant (in this case accompanied by a whole family) ends up stop paying rent and I would be on the hook for both covering the mortgage and dealing with open ended legal costs and time.