My wife works for Ferguson, and I know many contractors, so I can get a lot of materials at cost.

@Jaycee Greene Yeah it is easy for one to get discouraged when buying this type of project but I must say they are decent when trying to start low and build capital, that way you dont have to deal with **** properties or mediocre neighborhoods again. 

There are several different types of income in the US tax code.Two main types are “active income” and “passive income".Active income is money you earn from working, such as wages from a W-2 job or income from running a business.Passive income is money you earn from investments like real estate, stocks, or rental income from your RE portfolio where you earn $ without actively working.Normally, you can't use passive losses (like losses from real estate investments) to offset active income like your salary from a W-2 job.That is unless you are an RE Pro.The reality is, that Real Estate Pro status is just a filing status similar to filing married or jointly.And if you are a real estate professional you CAN use passive real estate losses to offset active income from other sources.To qualify as an RE Pro you must:1.

If you research recent sales you can always provide the appraiser a list of those sales.One of the best ways to insure a higher value is to update the property using materials and fixtures that are popular and common in the area.

You can break it out by general RE activities and material participation.

There's some excellent relevant & recent material from very high quality individuals on this forum.

Root intrusion is rare with plastic pipe because that means a crack that's going to admit soil as well and eventually bust completely, so if you have roots in PVC you might as well plan to excavate.

And the reason why your "tale of two halves" will play out as you described.Demand:  This has actually been high almost all along, but rent growth hasn't materialized in response due to high levels of new supply. 

To address this I took detailed pictures from beginning to end of my most recent flip, documenting that we did a thorough job using quality materials.   

I'm debating sponsoring other areas to hang my material up.What ways do you like to promote your business?