Or do I owe taxes on 240k minus - 68k = 172k ? 

Financial due diligence is also key; calculate all potential costs and expected income, including mortgage, taxes, management fees, and maintenance.

They handle the baltimore city tax sale you can see that at BidBaltimore.com.

Long-Term: Appreciation, loan amortization, potential tax benefits, and housing expense savings.I'd say the unexpected benefits of learning property management, deal finding, project management, renovations, and DIY-ing were more impactful than I initially thought.

Looking for advice on how to maximize tax benefits on an upcoming conversion of my primary home to a long term rental (temporarily).

The best part about it is it's easy to tag your transactions for each property with categories that sync to your Schedule E for taxes, making tax prep super easy.

Depreciation for tax purposesThe amount of annual depreciation OVERLY offset my net income on the property.

Your monthly payment will be $15,000 and doesn't include taxes or insurance.

Can they be used to cover or prepay the property taxes?

If you finance at 25% down, 25 year amortization and a 7% rate you will not cover mortgage and interest let alone insurance, taxes, vacancy, repair, etc.