It will eat your profit even more.If you refinance the house which you think worth $140K and appraised $170K, your mortgage might be under water if market sinks.Looking at your numbers, I think there is something is wrong: you might overpaid or your rent is really low.For example, my client just bought a flip (turnkey per se - new everything from roof to kitchen, finished basement etc).

@Mark HaggeI am a newbie in Illinois too so I can’t help you with your question, per se.

SE Minneapolis would be good too.Feel free to reach out when you're in town - happy to meet up!

Their office is on SE 52nd Ave.Hope this helps,Mike

I don’t want a real estate agent per se (unless required to be licensed for leasing) b/c from my first hand experience they have always found me short term tenants who moved out immediately after finding a home (I think because they do MLS ads which hits mostly the prospective home buyer market and I think they also prospect for themselves).

My SO is an LL and agent at RE/MAX and specializes in rentals ( primarily in the city’s SE quadrant and suburbs) & can help you run the numbers. 

Ambergris is not considered "remote" per se, it is where 70% of all of the overnight tourists go at some point during their vacation, but you do have to barge in materials, and that can be a logistical undertaking.  

That is where LLC or LP are useful entities as they are limiting the risk only to the asset inside the entity (for inside liability exposure) and are blocking access from outside liability exposure (if in a charging order protection state).I agree that anonymity is an important tool in your total asset protection plan, but it is does not per se give asset protection.There are exceptions, like for instance in Florida where Land Trusts have some (limited) asset protection characteristics.

OK everyone stop knocking pitbulls I had 1 for 13 years and he was a baby cats ruled him do your homework once again not all pit bulls are bad it's the ownersI don't have problems with pitbulls per se, but in the Pittsburgh neighborhood guys get pitbulls to be mean and shore up their image.

Your tax benefit from SEP needs to be analyzed vs the cost of changing non-SE income to SE income.