Rental real estate is generally not SE income.I may be biased, but IMO the surest way to mitigate your tax liability and navigate the waters so to speak is to retain a tax professional as an external partner on your team.

Office furniture and fixtures are 7 year GDS assets.Absent an electing real property trade or business election under 163(j), and ignoring the land and amortizable intangibles, I'd expect to see 5yr, 15yr, and 27.5/39yr GDS assets only on a residential rental's depreciation schedule.Agree that it's difficult to navigate the tangible property regs and depreciation class lives without a CPA.

@J Val up to you on what is a better "first time option" - certainly if you can successfully navigate buying and operating a rental in PS, you can do it anywhere, so I wouldn't let the restrictions stop you if that's a location you want to invest in.

I would read the below article to help you understand per IRS rule RE professional but again speak to your CPA and or attorney for guidance.https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2017/mar/navigating-real-estate-professional-rules.htSo you invest $100k, and let's just say for argument sake it is a 6% cash on cash return so you will make $6k in Year 1 and go up from there.

You do not necessarily have to agree.... we would then have to analyse whether or not circumventing site navigation waypoints is technically agreement or not

Does  any one have any experience / suggestions on how to navigate this profitably and what to do going forward?

I wanted to introduce myself and add any local contacts as I navigate Chicago.

I credit these forums to helping me navigate my time thus far as an investor. we have some extremely active heavy hitters around us in the DMV area who are not afraid to share their knowledge. 

I wanted to introduce myself and add any local contacts as I navigate Chicago. 

Navigate to the "Sell" tab at the top of the page.