The facts are the same as in Example 1, except that B's child turns 13 on February 1, 2008, and B pays for the care provided in January 2008 on February 3, 2008... ...the amount B pays will be an employment-related expense under section 21, because B's child is a qualifying individual when the services are performed, even though the child is not a qualifying individual when B pays the expenses.So we CAN, after all, claim expense up to the birthday day!

Other ways of using SDIRAs could be to invest in syndications, performing  or non-performing debt, precious metals, raw land, precious metals, mobile home parks, self-storage facilities and more. 

Point is, there is a new bar being set and if your not operating up to it, we are going to make your listing look like crap and perform like crap because were putting this out to the potential tenants and who'd you pursue and choose?

But always remember that RE is a risky venture, and you could go through years of less than stellar performance.

@Chris Kay finding a quality, cost-effective contractor is extremely difficult:(There are thousands of contractors that are great talkers, but rarely perform within budget.Standard bait & switch is to lowball a bid, then once they get started all sorts of things "pop up" that somehow their bid didn't cover.

According to their SEC filing of the $300 million in loan they made, $299,300,000 was NON PERFORMING.  

As I'm new to this domain, I would to hire a consultant to perform some zoning and other due diligence activities.

Here’s the TRUTH - If the entire Federal bureaucracy shut down tomorrow, within two years ll NECESSARY functions would be performed by private sector and private charities, the charities  which would have more than enough money from donations from the public no longer paying taxes to fund the bureaucrats, the congressman and Senators $25 million each in “speaking fees” the waste and fraud currently being exposed that has the political establishment scared to death, as well as not having their savings robbed by the inflation caused by the currency “printing press”.  

In fact, someone just called me last week and had a non-performing rental package that they purchased in the same fashion and the prices they bought at, considering the actual condition and historical performance of the properties was too high in my opinion. 

If these homes were such great investments, they would keep them for their own portfolio.When you purchase an investment, calculate your returns based on actual performance.