Since you are likely not able to deduct it against your ordinary income you will be carrying over losses.They will fill out Schedule E (Form 1040) for overall income, and Form 8582 for all of your carry over losses.

The other factor that's relevant for me is that my husband is a high end W-2 wage earner and we could greatly benefit from the potential tax benefits of actively managing the property. 

Quote from @Gregory Wilson: A few things there, Brendan.First, an LLC with you as a member and your (wife, son, pal, etc.) partner as a 1% member will file a Form 1065 which is about one tenth as likely to be audited by the IRS as a Form 1040 with a Schedule E rental activity (which I presume you will attempt to show is an active business).Second, you want an LLC because when your local Alabama handyman drives his girlfriend's uninsured truck into a van load of U of A medical school interns on I-22 when he goes  to get some shingles for your roof, on your business, you don't lose everything you have or ever will have to an uninsured claim. 

They had it priced too high at first, but then I made them an offer where the deal made sense for me to do it at.

As we all know, the standard way BP says to calculate cash flow actually leads investors away form long-term opportunity and leaves a lot of investors on the sidelines because they don't understand IRR and the multi layered dynamics of investing long-term.  

Currently, since I'm an out of town investor, I pay someone once a month to host an Open House for me. 

I found a few that I liked and Melissa was able to help me quickly identify which ones were best for me and proceed with the purchasing process.

for me, the ones that cashflow the most are the ones that I bought with 3% long term debt, they were new (low maintenance) and they are in high appreciating areas(just a bonus but does not impact cashflow).

Hope this is the next step for me. 

My son currently lives in the townhouse b/c he is going to school and works in the area.Since he is young and starting out in life, I would like for him to only cover the basic costs (taxes, HOA, utilities) just enough for me to break even (I believe that will put him slightly little lower than market rent rates).