Simply owning some investment real estate does not make one a real estate professional anymore than owning some stock's makes one a Stock Trader....To qualify for real estate professional status (REPS), you must meet the following requirements:50% test: More than half of your personal services must be in real property trades or businesses.750-hour test: You must perform at least 750 hours of services in real property trades or businesses.

It is a whole new profession/trade and it should be taken as such...

When the World Trade Center was crashed into, the owner collected double on the insurance policy but then had to give half of it back.  

Sheetrock crew comes in next....think they clean up after all the other trades and throw away all the trash? 

If you want a machine thats a jack of all trades , look at a Kubota L 3901 with a backhoe . ( Kubota still has 0% financing  )

Hi Mark, I am a Marketing Strategist by trade.

@Natalie Johnstone My former employer who was a privately traded company that owned over a billion dollars of real estate and had an ancillary management business with revenues that exceeded $100M annually would sometimes form entities in Delaware because business cases are tried in front of a judge w/o a Jury and case law that's applied to decisions is very well developed in the State.

My tenant of 1 year just moved out recently (work transfer), but during the move-out inspection we found that one of the 10X10 bedroom has all four side of the wall covered in screw holes from the time they used it as a computer room (I believe the holes were from the sound deadening foam that they used to attach to the wall) So I was wondering what would seem to be a fairly reasonable cost to be deducted from their Security Deposit for the excessive holes and needing to repaint.

The demographics of these investors are typically high income earners, almost 90% working in tech (software engineering, tech sales, computer science, etc).

I think you're gonna see a lot of deals underwater trading before year end, with banks trying to clean up their balance sheets.5.5% with 25% down is a very competitive rate.