Thanks for your insight Your title is asking about self employment but the body is asking about rental income. so sorry if I am misunderstanding but here is the form that an underwriter will use to calculate your rental income:  https://content.enactmi.com/documents/calculators/Form1038.C...Those items you mention deprecation, interest, HOA dues are always added back along with taxes and insurance.  

There is a terrible misunderstanding regarding initial cashflow vs long term cashflow and initial cashflow and over ROI. 

I was just checking on the zoning for Melbourne Beach and it looks like pretty much anything that is zoned for housing is allowed to be used as a STR... is that your understanding, or I am I misunderstanding that? 

I was not tryign to throw you under the bus at all with the misunderstanding I was more apologizing for my own interpretation of her experience.

LOL i think there's double misunderstanding here....I'm saying because of (my understanding of cap rate/appreciation) then my next generation would not need to pay mortgage at all because all my ex-primary in bay area has DSCR greater than 1.0 ; btw I donot know that it's possible to have lease from the adult working kid too LOL.yes passive active can only exceed passive income but you could always do infinite loop to not generate tax:purchase->rehab->rent_it_likeMF/househack->HELOC->buy another primary....basically I copy paste strategy of value_add MF GP but into your own primary.

Now, it's probably a mix of my bad math, bad deals, and my misunderstanding of financing--because surely some properties must have positive cashflow from day 1, right? 

Managing tenant expectations is also key, as setting realistic timelines and clearly communicating the warranty process can prevent misunderstandings and conflict.

And, this thread is over a year old, where have you been, pretty low post count to demand attention from our members, btw, having more doesn't make anyone right, but at least they are better known is my point, who do you believe type of thing.Good luck to you and I hope we cleared up any misunderstanding. :) 

Many ambitious investors, however, misunderstand the difficulties that come with managing such properties.

To avoid confusion and misunderstandings, it really is best they do it all themselves.THAT is what I am saying.