Any repair, maintenance, or upkeep costs that are directly attributed to the rental property can be deducted on Schedule E.  

Warren Buffet has repeatedly said that he attributes all his success and wealth to the DC Course.

This allows investors to take a significant passive loss and one of the most attractive attributes is time.

@Holly Lehman - I love that quote, however I believe it is attributed to one of the greatest cheats in your lifetimes, Lance Armstrong.

We try to weed through some of the applicant BS by trying to make some of the subjective attributes more quantifiable and verifiable.  

As for it not being a sexy asset class...to me thats its best attribute, no BS just a building and use it as you will.  

We attribute our positive BRRRR experiences to our rigorous and risk-based due diligence, conservative underwriting, and meaningful networking.Operation:Net annual cash flow equals approx. $37,800 after 19% reserve for Vacancy/Credit loss and Capital Expenditure across the portfolio.Goals:We are looking to acquire a 50+ unit commercial-residential complex (<$4M) by the end of the year.

The process took about 45 days (about 15 was attributed to my going on vacation, etc.).  

Portion of that rent is to be attributed to normal wear and tear.

I couldn't find the listing but would be interesting to see the specs/price for comparison.Anyway on the architect,  I'd say both talk to one before any specific property just to get a better idea both in terms of attributes of the home to look for,  and also to get any ideas of difficulties/quirks with the particular jurisdiction you are looking at,  and then after the purchase (assuming you are trying to do everything above the board, permitted, etc.