You can not deduct the down paymentYou can deduct any costs you incur to upkeep the property(Repairs, insurance, taxes, depreciaiton, etc)Whether you can offset the rental loss against other forms of income depends on whether the property is considered active or what your income level is.

If you do it anyway, then you must accept that you will probably realize a loss because those people will not respect the time, money or effort you put into a rental property and will just think you're a greedy bastard. 

This practice enables the Tax Commissioner to maintain a very high collection rate because the investor absorbs the risk of loss (but also the potential for profit).

It doesn't bother me to lose some money on my place because I use it, I like it, and I'm working towards higher rates with some of the improvements, but I can afford the loss.

Mainly, the LLC prevents a loss from spilling over into your other investments or your personal finances in many cases (though not all).

The minute you start trying to be everything to everyone in the name of scale you lose your vision quest and what you want out of life.

I would rather absorb the loss of rent than deal with any more passive aggressiveness from the current tenants and lose out on good leads as a result of that.I really appreciate each of you for taking the time and clarifying things for me.

Unit 1 will lose this small storage.We settled for $ 250 rebate per month for the loss of this small storage.And $ 700 rebate for the construction.

They had issues performing because they didn't underwrite expenses correctly and as a result they ended up carrying alot of debt and losses.

@Bill HamptonNot a cpaBut you should have a profit and loss statement that shows all your profits and losses.