Does anyone have any advice on the feasibility of not classifying the property as an investment property to depreciate or write off expenses such as furniture, dishes, insurance etc, & just collecting monthly rent on your property for a regularly classified home?

@Shawn Ackerman, yes most are in "D"ish neighborhoods (Baltimore has a reputation for a reason), but some are just really distressed Cs.

Trust me, you don't want to have your tenant call to let you know the new kitchen cabinet came off the wall when she put her dishes in it, to find out the contractor you hired didn't screw it into any studs (haha .. yes, it's true .. luckily we no longer work with that contractor but will likely be cleaning up messes for years to come).

Is it reasonable to expect tenants to take care of things (ie. not putting wet dishes and other things away in the cabinets..not banging the edges of cabinets when they put things away…not dripping water on outsides of cabinets leaving it… and things of that nature)?

They are all short term rentals so everybody is on their best behavior and we don't ever have to deal with that roommate who always leaves dishes in the sink!

Is it a few light switches replaced with a dish washer change out?

I can look at this two ways - - 1) Having a dishwasher may open my tenant field and reduce vacancy time. 2) People that knowingly rent a property without a dishwasher are willing to do dishes, and therefore likely willing to do regular household maintenance?

There were cowboy boots and clothes and dishes, an engine block, camping supplies.

I couldn't agree more......and unfortunately I was the guy who kept dishing out the money.

I dropped my Dish down to basic, to about $30 a month from $90 a month and got a Roku for Netflix ($8 a month) and a bunch of free channels.