And yes, maybe "be patient and save" is the best move right now, until a good deal comes along.  

experience: I’m on my 3rd flipage: early 40sday job: brand and web design/development retirement savings: noneI want to learn about buy and hold to secure having SOMETHING for retirement!

In that case you might save taxes building with them.

The house I currently own, I am saving over $100k (estimated) on the rehab cost by partnering with this builder (and it takes me out simply finance the deal and, hopefully, make a very good profit).But to your point, flipping is not what it used to be.  

Instead of their cash sitting in a savings account, they decided it would be a better investment to earn 3% on their money instead of .03% in the bank.

Sounds like I can safely write them off only after I purchase the rental and start the renovations to ultimately rent it out.

Hey thanks for your response.I noticed your YouTube videos, I’ve saved them to my playlist to watch.  

But from what I have seen it has a lot of useful accounting tools that should make my life significantly easier, and ultimately that's what my intent is.

Prepare financially by saving for down payments, improving your credit score, and setting aside emergency reserves.

Not sexy as Lexington but bank account is the ultimate measure of success