., rental) use would not include any period after the last date that the property is used as the principal residence of the taxpayer or the taxpayer's spouse, so it essentially doesn't matter that it was a rental from December 2014 - June 2017 for purposes of the home sale gain exclusion since the last date you lived in the property as your principal residence was before you rented it out.Depreciation recapture is another story.

I found posts like this to be helpful when I was first learning about investing in real estate, so hopefully someone on here can get something out of it.Our goals were to cash flow $100 per month per door, have a cash-on-cash ROI of 12%, and achieve a total return of 20%.Purchase price: $179,900Our loan is a 30-year fixed rate residential mortgage at 4.25%25% Downpayment: $44,975Mortgage Payment (Principal & Interest): $663.75Operating Income$26,435 scheduled gross rents (4 units)$(1001) vacancy$600 garage rent$11 interest$26,045 gross operating incomeOperating ExpensesProperty Management (10% of gross rents): $(2543)Leasing fee for new tenant placement: $(550)Sewer: $(1397)Water & Trash: $(1232)Lawn care/mowing: $(350)Gas & electric during vacancy: $(228)City occupancy inspection aka government extortion fees: $(183)Maintenance & Repairs: $(3594)Property Taxes: $(2009)Insurance: $(983)$(13,069) gross operating expenseNet Operating Income: $12,976Mortgage P&I: $(7965)Cash Flow Before Taxes: $5,011Cash-on-cash return: 11%Equity Accrued: $2275Total Return: $7286Total ROI: 16%We hit our cash flow number almost exactly at $104 per door while our ROI and total return came in a little under our projections, but pretty damn close.

I understand the principal of having a lot of properties to create wealth, but if I can make $1700 a month with two properties, then refinancing to buy 2-3 more properties with minimal downpayment does not make sense to me...... there will be minimal cash flow from every property, and I'd likely be making the same $1700.....What are some of your experiences.  

Verification:Rental of Other Property Not Securing the VA Loan Obtain the following: documentation of cash reserves totaling at least 3 months mortgage payments (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance - PITI), and individual income tax returns, signed and dated, plus all applicable schedules for the previous 2 years, which show rental income generated by the property.

It will take some time to transition over and there will be a steep learning curve with all of these new properties and you'll likely value the cash flow more than principal reduction. 

You will be lucky to pay 2k off principal in a year.

Too often I see people talk about cash flow as gross rents - principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI). 

@Guy YoesIf the room in your house is your principal place of business (and it sounds like that is the case), then traveling to check on the rentals is a legitimate deduction.

It's incredibly easy to manage as I have phenomenal tenants when take care of the place, so I'm personally happy with the little money it makes + principal pay down + paper losses from depreciation.

And they’re going to come into the job expecting to use the entire budget and contingency, so yeah any leftovers maybe applied towards principal, but anticipate there being any.