I owe the IRS money and didn't want them to know I had any excess cash.21. 

This is typically the excess of deductible expenses over taxable income.Report the NOL on Your Tax Return: On your 2023 tax return, you will need to report the NOL on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Line 22, "Other income."

Except in cases of things like a 1031 exchange, your capital gain is measured on the sale price in excess of the properties basis.

You are correct that $100/hr is excessive, but there may be a justification for it and the amount of time it took.

Home goes for state tax sale obtains excess funds to pay past due taxes and liens then servicer sits on it and never gets their $$$. 

The fed is going to keep a tight position as long as they can...until stuff breaks so they can vacuum up the massive amount of excess stimulus and decrease the size of their balance sheet. 

Estimate is excess 1.5K for claiming half the walls and ceiling in the home need to be repainted, every door in the house needs to be cleaned, and other random items.

Agreed @Laura Richards, it seems a bit excessive in cost and unnecessarily complicated, and I personally would not recommend for a beginner. 

One option you can look into so you leave yourself some excess capital is to finance the property for the time being so you have some wiggle room in your budget in the near term.

My goal when planning for the next tax year is to get Line 22 as close to (or over, but not excessively) the maximum ($89,250 in my case) as possible.