You are missing my point on taxes.Scenario 1:  Your partner buys the house at the same time you put your cash in.  

This strategy could give you steady cash flow while avoiding some of the volatility that can come with Airbnb.

If you truly just want your primary paid off you can just do a cash out refi on your investment, still in your own name, and pay off your primary.

This negative position can consume years of cash flow to recover.

I currently have about $50k in cash and am looking to spend no more than $250k on my first property (less depending on the area, number of units, etc.), inclusive of any renovation costs. 

The cash investor who "saw the property on zillow" but doesn't really understand what REO means or how the banks operate. 

Cleveland is cash flow, we do build to rent in columbus urban infill where prices are the highest and land prices make sense. rents are good and on a DSCR can pull out cash and do again. easy scalable strategy and sell the portfolio eventually 1031 into something greater.

Cash Flow - money coming in is greater than your expenses.

And right now the bigger cabins are not a good cash flow play but might be a great equity play when you look back in two to three years.  

On my new builds we hit the double cash on cash in certain markets sometimes its only 50%.