Improper soil compaction is a big deal but it's solvable....though expensive.

Also, what I'm about to suggest is "contrary" to the advice you'll get "out there" because people in general think the level of risk and difficulty (in RE) increases in direct proportion to the number of units you have.

Is 1 out of the past 5 years a proportional reduction in taxes?

The way I think about it, because we know inflation is inevitable in the future, you should try to get as many fixed mortgages as you can now.If you have you properties leveraged at 80 and 90% LTV and your rates are locked in at 3-5%, when inflation does come your returns go up.Your debt service costs will stay the same, while your rents should increase proportional to inflation.Also, if you have a mortgage at 4% and inflation is 3%, your effective interest rate is 1%.

The helpers were there to help leveling the soil and compacting to desired elevation.

Is it safer to wait two years for the recession and therefore houses to fall in price or is that blown out of proportion and the current state of real estate is still going strong?

Take down the round hedges - they add nothing to the house and are completely out of proportion.

Not much good saying "but I'll move/rent it out as soon as I'm allowed", because you'll always get zero dollars as income from your next (proportional) primary, and so on].I'm not objecting to your research / maybe buying it, but please don't let your Realtor skew the numbers about your primary-to-be in purely pro forma investment terms.

When the down payment is 50k, this is a proportionally significant number.From a ROI perspective, I would like to bundle all these "startup costs" along with my down payment and closing costs into a lump sum (call it "acquisition cost") so that I can compute my cash on cash ROI.But this is in conflict with how the IRS will treat them -- as ordinary expenses.Besides not having a good picture of how my P&L is actually doing, I would like future lenders to see the higher (actual) profit, not a poor first year because of the startup costs.

The most profitable property I have is a simple, compact 3BR/2BA home in a nice neighborhood with a Studio in-law unit.