I don't believe it is too complicated but scoured the web for awhile with no luck answering my question.The scenario:A family member (father) buys a 'secondary residence', which includes a mortgage loan under his name to purchase the property but also puts his son's name on the deed along with his own name (father).The son moves into this property and lives there for 5+ years, he assumes all responsibilities (pays mortgage, property taxes, insurance, etc.) and also files the mortgage interest every year with his taxes.In the event the property is sold.

I've scoured the internet it looks to me like the best case scenario would be that I could get the 121 exclusion only on the half I live in but would still have to pay recaptured depreciation tax.  

On the bright side this has forced me to become market agnostic and I have been scouring the listings of other inland states where appreciation and rent appreciation can be much more stable such as Ohio. 

I'm sure no BP member would ever stoop to such tactics ;) Seriously though, do you think the market has become so saturated that these people are just desperately scouring the planet for anything just hoping for a bite?

I have spent much time scouring the internet, office supply stores, dollar stores, and many other places to find good affordable paper.

Our agent has become a great friend through this whole process.3) Sign up for those automatic MLS notifications for the area you are looking in, with the parameters you choose and scour them every day. 

Scour the internet for FSBO and absentee owners and if you can locate their phone numbers, just give them a call and ask them.

And to stick with it and keep on keeping on.But the point that I was trying to make in my original post is that so many newbies think that they can just meet with a Realtor and have that Realtor to scour the MLS for them and send them listings, and then write up an offer that they have no ability to close on, and then put a few ads on Craigslist to find an end-buyer.

Scour the MLS looking for newest and oldest deals. 5.

For about $50 you can hire a programmer on Odesk.com to scour the tax records and create a list of owners who live at a different address than the situs property.