Lets keep it simple at first. find a city, and go for that one. 3) a Seller carry back is one of things that your read about in books but in practice, rarely ever happens.

I want to get a clearer idea of what travel expenses I can write off, but I don't want to get into a gray area of risky tax practices, so here's my question: If I'm in town for a week, can I treat the first three days as a work trip and the rest as personal time, and write of the airfare and business costs with confidence that I'm not muddying the waters?

I crunch numbers and analyze deals daily, as a practice.

First, I hope you are being smart and following fair housing practices in advertisements and such.  

This is not legal advice and I'm not your lawyer, etc.You have to consider the legalities and the practicalities.

ask for more - money back at settlement - guarantees to survive settlement, all chattels in buildingsadd commercial real estate to your wish list of opporltunitesif you become discourage and frustrated - go flip a few junk houses for practice and cash flowattend auctions - watch the activity closely - meet your competition - collect cards - build a buyers listdo something every day related to your personal real estate and financial goals DON'T GIVE UP!

Non professional practices will normally result in major financial losses.

I purposefully, and uneducatedly, set the replacement cost of the policy at $75k while I knew the property was only worth about $50k...not sure if that is bad practice or not but I am the type that likes to make sure I am REALLY covered! 

It's good practice if nothing else.  

.- Real estate agents, I need to start getting in touch with the current state of the market, and start translating the theoretical book learning into practice.