Instead of taking the depreciation over the standard number of years, you send in an army of qualified professionals and they go and look at each part of the building and make a guess at how many years each component has.

This way, if there was an unexpected spike in vacancy we could toggle back a bit to keep revenues from dipping.

It seems housing has a component of "leverage" that has many folks bypassing my savings rate while spending more.GoalsMy goals are 15-20 years from now (mid-50s) to be able to retire early, have fun, while maintaining a lifestyle and income. 

Since land is excluded from the depreciation value anyway, if I pay 300k for a townhome with .3 acre lot vs 340k on a .15 acre lot, the schedule shouldn't matter too much or am I missing some key components?

How are most cash flows split (50/50) and what about unexpected expenses.

A very important component is this gets the listed unit rents at full market instantly, so if/when there is a vacant unit you wont have the mess of some tenants way under market making it years until you get to full.

I definitely want to create a for-profit entity that has a giving component, similar to TOMS.

( That can include large unexpected repairs, for example, like finding out you’ll need a new HVAC system or a new roof, which can cost upwards of $500k plus).In addition, some of the investors who expressed an interest will end up backing out, and having an excess or reserve will help fill in the amount you lost.

I ended up going with “for property upgrades and in case of unexpected expenses.”

If you want some sort of rental component to your primary residence, you can always house hack with a rent-by-the-room model or find a place with a basement apartment or carriage house out back.