Just remember: most negative reviews are written by problematic tenants.

In some cases, after crunching the numbers, the profit margin was so slim—or even negative—that I had to pass on some promising opportunities.Here’s my situation: I currently own two properties—a primary residence and a rental property—both of which have substantial equity.

I do not care what the source of the return is  Historically the highest return is via a value add and appreciation and is more so recently due to the recent rate increase versus earlier this century (before 2022).However, most new RE investors cannot handle extended periods of large negative cash flow.  

If you do use a heloc,  you are directly negating any benefit. 

This year we cleared about $530k revenue which was like a 3.5x from last year which returns were negative for 2023 , but I'm assuming that's not going to be the case for 2024 once we file.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

With 5% down payments and all the expenses deducted, there seem to have close negative/only around $100 cash flow each month.

In this example the initial investment would be $50,000.So the owner of the IRA would have to pay 37% in taxes seems to negate the interest paid of 12.5% annually.Do I have this correct?

Additionally, they have another property which has appreciated in value, carries low interest rates, but has negative cashflow and essentially feels like it just locks money away.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.