im new to this just bought first duplex and am house hacking. been keeping up w bigger pockets and before that dustin heiner' podcast. being green, even i know that you never buy/acquire negative cashflow. thats just dumping money down the toilet. second, every real estate guru will tell you never bank on appreciation. thats gambling. home prices are at an all time high, if nything you bank on your property depreciating some and then returning to purchase price HOPEFULLY. you imagine your worst scenarios, lowest rents, longest imaginable time of vacancy, most drastic uncovered repair/situation, over estimate expenses. create your buffers. if the numbers still work then, then you buy. if the numbers work and you casah flow $250+/month i say go for it. it hard to get above that without significant down payments or finding a rare steal. at this time i think best value and only way to guarantee any kind of appreciation is to buy low and rehab. 

Imagine you bought a property for $2M.The land (excluding any structures) is valued at $400K.Since land is not depreciable in the eyes of the IRS, we subtract the land value from your purchase price to get your depreciable basis.Your depreciable basis is simply where a cost seg engineer starts from when allocating your eligible assets into either 5, 7, or 15 year property.In the scenario above, your starting basis would be $1.6M since your basis = your purchase price - the land value.Having an accurate land value is essential to getting your depreciation/bonus depreciation calculations right.This is the starting point for any cost seg study that you do.

Hey Koren,That's pretty much what I figured as well - can't imagine a realtor (or inspector) gets too far if they're referring poor work.Our realtor suggested Call2Inspect as well so that's great to hear!

Imagine the 2nd property is a 4plex, each unit can be rented $1500/unit of 75% =$1125 x 4 units =$4500 worth of income to offset your that 2nd property.

With as many people he has done this to, I imagine he will be placed in jail.

I've seen soo many statistics, so many data, so many non-public information where the situation at CRE is much worse than 2008, in 2023.You can't imagine class A San Fran office is valued at below $200 PSF , in Portland even it's less than $70 PSF.

I imagine a lot split would also significantly increase cost of utilities as now I would have 3 hookups in that scenario.I am also concerned what would happen to that sweet 3.25% 30 year fixed mortgage I have, which I don't want to create any risk over in the slightest.Any advice on how to frame my counter arguments would be incredibly appreciated.

Some say they are the same, others will exclusively do one or the other, which would lead me to think they are more different than first imagined. 

But, I would imagine he'd be a pretty good tenant because I'm sure it's pretty difficult to find a place to rent being a sex offender.

It's much easier to rack up  material hours if you are nearby and able to take on some of the timely hands-on work yourself.I imagine that others have tried to do this while OOS investing but I couldn't speak to their success (or lack thereof)