My goal is to be of help by giving what i know and in return learning while building a team with those interested in working together.

The loan was at 380k, punching that into a calc and looking at amortization shows that throughout the life of the loan we would have spent 275k on interest alone to get an extra ~4500/year back on the taxes... it seemed like that small return was outweighed by 1. not having an 2000/mo payment, 2. not paying the extra 275k in interest 3. peace of mind of not ever having to worry about having a roof over our heads.So, I know you are probably going to look at this and tell me that I sound contradictory or it doesn't make sense to want tax write offs but then give up the best/easiest tax write off available to "most" people.

The charges were more than their deposit so they were sent a bill.I received a letter from an attorney demanding that the entire amount be returned to the ex-tenant.

The only thing I'd add is make sure that the return you'd get on the property is gonna be worth the cost of a student loan.

I am now a stay-at-home-mom with a 2.5 year old girl and a 1.5 year old boy.

@Mary JoeYou miss my point, if you are putting up to $200,000 down, you need to make a healthy return. 

So they got what they wanted which was a chunk of cash up front and I got what I wanted which was a good return on my invested capital.The seller had a recent appraisal on the building so I offered them a bit less than the appraised value and we worked out a rent that is comparable /sq ft to similar properties in town.The seller gave me yearly rental increases and I gave him the option to buy the property back from me any time during the 5 year lease term because that was important to him.One of those classic win-win deals.

B class properties are 80-130k, you can pretty consistently get 8% rate of returns and with off-market deals almost everything is hitting the 1% rent to value ratio.

I’m interested to hear if people are beginning to take more risk on repairs, leasing risk, etc. in chase of returns, or are people sitting on the sidelines?  

I'd accept let them know you understand, you'll wave late fee for September, ask how much they can pay.. if it's at least 50 to 60% I'd say Ok and  your next payment will be on XXX date. and find out how soon they expect to return to work..