If you do a case study also consider what market appreciation and mortgage paydown would occur in both scenarios.

One tenant is moving in with friends (he did ask if I had a 3-4 bedroom and I have several but neither will be ready in time) and the other tenant just had a baby so I don't know if she's moving in with her boyfriend or what's going on but sadly things like this will occur more and more often in this economy. 

I haven't looked into it but I had a thought occur while writing this if you could argue that a % of the conference would be used for investigative purposes and the rest for business.

Woody's business started at the time he purchased the 1st property or at the time he held it out for rent, because, in any event, the expenses in question here all occurred before the purchase date, i.e., before December 30If the earliest possible date investor was actively carrying on a trade or business was December 30, 2004, then any expenses incurred in that year but incurred “before the day on which the active trade or business” began, all the expenses incurred from January 1 through December 29, 2004--would be, by definition, start-up expenses whose deductibility, and possible amortization, is expressly dealt with by section 195(Start up amortization).

The only challenge we ran into was the tenant needed an extra week to vacate the property, also this occurred during the 4th of July holiday so a little stress but the property had to be delivered vacant so we made sure that happened.

Do you have money to take care of the inevitable problems that will occur.

What I'm torn about is that the ceiling tiles were not painted, if I had painted them before hand, there's a decent chance this damage would not have occurred?

Minimal cash upfront, negotiate a monthly rent, lock in a price today that will benefit from any appreciate that might occur during the term of the lease.

Usually this occurs on weekends after six pm and the companies they partner with are all charging emergency fees. i have had emergency services come for a thermostat that the vacationer couldn't figure out how to use. $200 for an hvac guy to say "turn the dial like this". 

But a "quick" sale to amateur investors who just paid for a course organized around the guru model advertised on a cheap wordpress website?