And, it will really teach you a lot about people and life in general.Our government employees in Washington D.C. would benefit greatly if they left the marble hallways and managed a number of residential properties.

The tax benefits were a pure surprise.

Any tips on structuring assets in order to maximize benefits and minimize risk (and effort come tax time)?

Your target should be based on your cost of funds and market conditions, your efforts and management, known and estimated costs as well as tax benefits.

Maybe there's a way you can benefit from using some of my time in exchange for what you know, and I know a good amount about website building, if that's part of your strategy in any way.

Only do the entity if you have partners or equity investors, unless you like to pay lots of money for very little (or no) benefit.

Any thoughts/recommendations as to how I might structure my assets to get the most benefit and help keep everything straight?

Obviously, this arrangement doesn't allow me sell the high points and benefits of seller financing, so my inquiries have consistently returned a flat "no".

The education/training component is more for the benefit of the franchise than franchisee.

I did a re-fi to get my mortgage payment down, but still get less in rental income than my mortgage payment.This was tolerable when I didn't have any other properties, and I could use the tax benefits.