There was a significant leak that developed in the basement laundry room -- he initially blamed us, but later, discovered it was another 'pin-hole leak' from a copper pipe (which filled up a 5 gallon bucket I placed under it, in about a day).  

I stayed at an AirBNB with a leaky roof and the host told me to put a bucket under it, haha.

This could be through means of a partner, a lender like a bank or private investor, or the hard money lender. the HML is often the low barrier of entry for most unless you're lucky to have a family member that likes you enough to give you a bucket of cash.

As sch C income is "active" trade or business income and falls into a separate bucket, you would not generally be able to offset sch C income with your Sch E losses.The passive actively loss rules generally do not apply to real estate professionals.

Some of you who never troweled concrete or scooped JC out of a bucket or dipped a brush in a can of polyurethane act like your rental properties are harem virgins, and there are plenty of judges who don't know the first thing about property maintenance who are perfectly willing to back up any silly claim as long as a contractor submits an invoice.You don't know what you don't know if you don't investigate.

We did have access to the lower unit which is the one that would’ve used the 5 gallon buckets. 

That is an outdated cistern or bucket well.

You can hook a hose up to the tank and run it over to a drain to avoid have to empty the bucket daily.  

(Consumer Credit) From my short time listening to BP podcasts and educating myself in the forums, I can say I have established how I want to pay for retirement and count on my financial success to support my bucket list.

Some of my immigrant tenants keep 5 gallon buckets in the bathroom I think they wash their feet in it or maybe their hind ends .