To me a scammer is like a well known note investor in austin who as an example went to write a book and charged people $500 to write a chapter in the book and took the money and never published it.

-------------------------I realized in the middle of writing this response that there was simply no way I would ever do this, even with an iron-clad agreement. 

If the agent is working for a RE broker I would be writing that broker..

In that case I write off the lost rent as cost of doing business, but I prefer that to the expense and hassle of an eviction, which typically ends up costing us more and takes longer, even though Milwaukee is still pretty landlord-friendly.I have also done cash for keys, but typically very conditional. 

Should I do a longer write up on it/other deals i've done?

But, I didn’t write this to tell you that you can’t achieve your goals without a mentor, because you absolutely can.

I'm sure there are great, stable areas in Columbus but I'm not convinced the appreciation has been as strong as most would lead you to believe.I don't know much about Cincinnati, but one glance at the median list price over the past 5 years (attached below) would be enough for me to write it off as not appreciating.I'm personally partial to Detroit and that's where I invest and do a lot of business with other folks as well.

Bonus depreciation is just a special part of the US tax code.It allows you to take accelerated depreciation on portions of your property depending on when an asset is put into service.At the time of this writing, you can write off a huge portion (60% in 2024) of many qualified components that have a useful lifespan of 15 years or less.That means a certain percentage of things like landscaping, sidewalks, latches, appliances, fences, certain flooring, etc is depreciable in year 1.The bonus depreciation rate percentage changes yearly depending on the administration and the tax code.For years 2015 through 2017 first-year depreciation for all the items on a 15-year schedule or less was set to 50%.It was scheduled to go down to 40% in 2018 and 30% in 2019 and then 0% in 2020.But then Trump got elected, and he enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.That moved the bonus depreciation percentage to 100% from 2017 to 2022.In 2023 it went down to 80% and it’s currently at 60%.Depending on who gets elected again, 100% may be back on the table.Only time will tell.We know that the US government wants to incentivize more development and ownership of RE.They want Americans to continue to build and maintain our physical world.That’s why real estate is one of the most tax-advantaged assets in the US.Depreciation and bonus depreciation for RE are very positive and will likely continue in the years ahead.

I actually sold a Class C a few months ago - I saw the writing on the wall after one Class C, very likely no capital gains after all my passive losses.

I write "competition" in quotes because I collaborate with my local "competition" instead of competing with them - common among MTR operators.