A charitable trust can be a great vehicle to provide income to you/your spouse during your life while also providing an income tax deduction on the asset you contribute to the Trust.

Our insurance has 5k deductible.

Return calcs do not include depreciation deductions or any kind of appreciation.

Depreciation - assuming the entire 1.5M is depreciated over 27.5 years means ~4500$/month that I can deduct from my income for federal tax purposes - so would need to multiply by my federal tax % to get an actual $ saved value (im a little hazy on these things, so please correct me if im wrong). doing so doesnt make this a cash-flowing deal with a mortgage, and still wont crack 5% ROI if i buy in cash.finally, here's a link to the biggerpockets calculator for this - https://www.biggerpockets.com/buy_and_hold_results...So, is this a very unattractive deal or am I missing something here?

Also depending on your income, it may not be deductible so best to pay off student loans ASAP.  

@Peter LaBreck Yes that's right but you have to  deduct closing cost also. 

Don't spend money just to get a tax deduction.

This issue has been discussed in various other posts, which you can research here as it has been discussed many, many times.Your other earned income outside of the rental will also have an impact as to whether or not any losses in your rental will be deductible.

You need to be mindful of that, and develop a strategy to ensure you can deduct interest.

You may be able to pay the taxes and deduct them from your rent.