I am doing the rehab on my first OOS BRRRR in Kansas City, KS and part of the project consists in converting an external patio area into liveable space and therefore increasing the overall square footage of the house.

I find that homes with out of the ordinary repairs needed are some of the best deals created as they "scare away" many lipstick flippers and open the doors for higher spreads for those investors willing and able to tackle them.

Also, I hear a lot of ordinary people (aka sheep)talking about getting into gold, both are bearish signs in my opinion.

May be it's because of the mismatch of the various site's data, or may be by design, the ads syndicated were missing details and contained wrong information.On Postlets I checked that I have a "Patio", but on Hotpads it showed as me having a "Yard", a "Porch" and a "Doorman".

On top of that, it's always been a bar/grill type place, and they have completely gutted it, from kitchen equipment down to the outdoor deck/patio.

Returns get taxed as ordinary income but done properly (like only loaning locally), should be very low risk.

When speaking with the clients ask them two questions: 1) Did he finish on time 2) Did he stay on budget, if not how far off budget was hewe once had a contractor who was a "friend" start an elaborate and beautiful patio cover for the outdoor kitchen my husband built.

For the secondary market it must be at least one foot above at all corners of the improvements, excluding patio areas or non-resident improvements like a storage building.

I strongly suggest you get with a CPA now while you still have a chance to do things that will affect 2013 taxes.If your AGI is over $150K then you will not be allowed to use passive losses from rentals to offset ordinary income.

But ideally you'd want one who already has some RI clients with real estate, as RI has become a lot more tax-unfriendly to investors in the past few years.For example, they eliminated itemized deductions in 2011 (http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110327/REG/303279975) and also started treating capital gains as ordinary income around the same period (http://voices.yahoo.com/elimination-preferential-tax-treatment-capital-6915746.html).That said, one of my more experienced real estate friends in RI seems to be having great luck with someone out of Ohio.