@Levi BjorkIn a very broad sense, your cost basis for taxes is the purchase price of the home and the costs for capital improvements to the home that have added value, prolonged its life, or adapted it for a new use (additional square footage, fencing, landscape improvements) outside of normal repairs and maintenance...For your cash on cash calculation, you can't really use the general calculation because you've been living in the home.

Adapt your skills to the problem and solve the problem. 

That is a philosophy I'm working to adapt into, and bouncing ideas off of you is a great way to get there.

Then as rents decrease you'll see some advantage of smaller operators who will adapt quickly and bring rate in check.

This is presented as some kind of punchline to a bad joke instead of evidence that human beings have this funny habit of changing their minds and adapting to circumstances instead of plotting rigid irreversible courses with their lives.

After a decade of adapting this philosophy, I've distanced myself physically and mentally from the past and am now quite pleased with where I'm at.

We've adapted our marketing and overall business model as the market has changed, maybe that's something you should consider too. 

At the end of the day I am still determined to find a way to make money through real estate but, if my current vision/plan is wrong I am willing to change/adapt/readjust to make it work.Thank you in advance to all your replies and advice.

But those who adapt can still follow the regulations while still having control of who they rent to.

Lots of things change on the fly and you need to be willing to adapt, overcome, and circumvent when the script gets flipped on you.