If you haven't taken the time to learn about real estate market cycles, one of the best books on subject is called "The secret lives of real estate and banking" by Phillip J Anderson.

You can buy on the internet at sites like loanmls.com or you can buy from a note seller or by wholesaling from a homeowner that is involved in a lease option or subject to or land contract situation or one of the note schools. 

Subject property is a 14 unit complex,  built in 1980s,  decent condition with no major repair anticipated.  

For some reason, I had believed that I would need to report these in the same tax year that the improvements were made.Since we are on this subject, I have one more question for you and others on this forum:Does the above situation change if my primary residence also becomes partly rental -- in other words, I may rent out half of the house and have the other half to myself as my primary residence.

If not, can they be sold subject 2 while keeping the existing blanket loan in place?

. :-)If simplicity and cashflow are important to you, I'd be looking hard at smaller multi-families, subject to all the due diligence etc., of course.

Here's a link to a blog article on the subject.  

The loan originator suggested that I work for a year and build a income first while paying off student loans so that I will have good rating; I just graduated college (completely different subject by the way).  

@Jesse Waters I am completely ignorant on the subject of cross colateralizations can you give me the quick and dirty so at least I'll know where to start.

I frequently have to exit and reload the categories and even individual posts for items to display as intended.