Examples:44109 (median home price went from roughly 50k to 125k in 8 years)https://www.zillow.com/home-values/77009/cleveland-oh-44109/ 44102 (median home price went from roughly 30k to 120k in 8 years)https://www.zillow.com/home-values/77002/cleveland-oh-44102/ 44106 (median home price went from roughly 100k to 200k in 8 years)https://www.zillow.com/home-values/77006/cleveland-oh-44106/ It has the highest rents on average in all of Ohio for major cities and the median income is not even in the top 3.

Look for areas with stronger rental demand, lower property taxes, and minimal HOA fees to keep expenses down.

In fact, construction wages have far outperformed average wage growth in the last 2 years.

Second pro is that you get to lower your living expenses or live "rent free" by having your tenants pay for your mortgage payment.

Basically what we have is a pretty “average” real estate opportunity investment.  

There are about 65,000 investigations into this type of mortgage fraud per year, resulting in about 5,000 convictions with the average prison sentence being 18 months.

Definitely a very expensive lesson learned, need recommendations for a reasonable priced, good contractor please?

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

Quote from @Krishnan Iyer: Hey Tom, I use Stessa to manage all my income and expenses (bookkeeping) for all my properties.

However, if you made the property available for rent in 2024—meaning you actively advertised it, listed it, or had it ready for tenants—you may be able to deduct certain expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, maintenance, and depreciation for that period.