Depreciation, the tax write off from my then high paying job had value.Over time, rents increased and property value went up.

Are you captive to the building HOA for increasing fees?

The rents were at $1000 a door with a potential to increase up to $1250 after some small TLC renovations.When you factor in the price point, lower taxes and lower insurance you have yourself a sure fire cash flow deal.

Are you looking from a more traditional real estate perspective where you're trying to acquire an asset for long term preservation of wealth, tax advantages, to have guests help out with the mortgage payemnts, potentially have rents and home value increase in time with normal inflation, and are okay with the idea of paying some amount out of the pocket some (most?)

Government now can restrict and cap your rent increases 3.

Many lenders have similar programs, so pricing can be increasingly similar.

Therefore if you purchase in say September, your current years tax bill will be based on the current years value which may be even lower than what you can achieve with the exemption and on investments the value will be updated according to your ATI and will not be reassessed by the county for five years as well as once it is, the increase is capped to a 15% increase in value which is not common and can be appealed which is less often than many other states.Yes, the effective tax rate comes out to a difference of say 0.5% on personal residence to 3.0% on investments, but I would say handling it the right way up front and budgeting for it in your analysis is better than risking it another way.

If you’re not comfortable with your analysis and still want to pursue the purchase, I would recommend engaging the services of a real estate consultant holding the CRE designation and paying them for a short form report.   

So if you want to increase your equity in the market overall by owning more units (ones where you can increase rents annually), I'd consider buying more if you even have the chance to.

There are pros / cons of whatever way you go about it plus a lot of unknowns.If your dad owns the place and it appreciates a lot and he decides to sell it, the gain can potentially be tax free which you wouldn't have the option for if it was a rental.I personally wouldn't do business with family.What if you own it and he rents it from you and you both have a disagreement on rent increases?