Like you said I won’t get too carried away until I know where I’m going to be working but I’m just hoping to be ready to commit when the time does come.

They are trying to tell me they don't carry insurance to save on costs..... concerning to say the least.

If already placed in service, I would still deduct it even though you have a loss as you can carry forward your loss. 

Start with 70% because the other 30% is your profit carry/closing cost.

I have seen on this website answers both ways regarding this (the site administrator saying leave it in Sch A, and his colleague (also a enrolled agent) advising that it can be written off in Sch E, but that there are certain restrictions mainly -- you must have passive activity gains where the deductions are covered (no passive activity loss carry over allowed.

I'm seeking tax tips for depreciation on an SFR that was purchased in 2014 as our private residence then converted to rental in 2016Details:Purchased in 2014loan was refinanced in 2015  We began depreciating in 2016 tax year, the year we began renting the home as landlordstax preparer for 2016 taxes entered basis amount based on 2015 assessment, not assessment from purchase year or for the 2016 assessmentunsure if bases was set correctly and whether to carry through that same basis or pull current year assessment for this and subsequent tax yearsTurbo Tax seems to be steering me towards using the purchase year assessment for the basis for depreciation.  

Structure the deal which works out best for you and the seller - that may be a lower sales price, that may be the owner carrying paper on favorable terms in exchange for a higher sales price, or something different.  

I could see more that maybe children would want a lump sum inheritence but maybe it would actually help from a tax perspective because it wouldn't be a lump sum and therefore would carry smaller impacts from an estate tax standpoint, depending of course on estate size, etc.

You can ask the seller to carry back the financing, but your primary lender would need to be OK with it.

Furthermore if it zeros out your tax bill it'll carry forward and reduce your taxes for next year.