If you pull up section 1402(a) paragraph 1 this excludes rental real estate income from  being subject to SE tax.

My wife translated for a couple that was staying in Colorado due to seing a specialist and it would have been a blessing to have a home close to the hospital to rent.

Check local law and review the HOA organizational docs as to whether those dues are a lien regardless of whether a "lien" per se is filed among the land records. 

Frequent reader, new poster here on BP, sorry to hear about your situation @Mitch SmithI'm a real estate attorney and contractor/investor in the Indy area (based out of Shelbyville, 25 minutes SE of Indy) and I'm seeing this happen far too often right now.

I didn't intend to make money right away, per se, with the refi strategy when I said "do it again."

HI Roxanne,It is true you need to be in the business for 2 years but no one talks about the details about how that is documented which is either by:- Looking up CA BRE website consumer licensee information which will show how long you've been licensed- CPA letter to sign/date on you being self employed for 2 + years or 5+ years if you're using Freddie Mac's program since Freddie specifically wants 5+ years to use 1 year tax return- or another third party to verify you've been SE (self employed) like business licenses, attorney's, other auditor or licensesWith regards to income like others have mentioned you can use 1 year tax return to base your monthly qualifying income off of.Freddie mac, like mentioned above is a a conventional financing option but the downside with Freddie is they want 5 years in the business as documented with one of the options above.

We have a great investor community here in SE FL.

Im looking to purchase a group of duplexes that include 10 units on 2 acres and need someone to complete inspections and evaluation of conditions and potential repairs, does anyone have someone to refer in SE Michigan that could do this within the next 2 weeks? 

Based off what your goals, I would suggest AASEW (Apartment Association of SE WI). 

I wouldn't weigh the decision based on SE income, you would want to figure it out based on total income.