Keeping it as a rental even if it loses a little bit each month may not be the end of the world if it brings your taxable income down a little bit.

The property has three buildings that will be rented/leased so there will be taxable income.

On my side of being a housing provider, we would "gross up" (I don't like that term, but that's what we use) the tax free income to basically simulate what it would be if it were normal taxable income.

I guess I could make the argument that if you wanted to park your money, have a (relatively) low maintenance build, actually *wanted* to live there (as a person, not an investor), and didn't want any taxable income in the near term, then I could see doing it.

Well today I got a letter from the IRS saying they didn't show record of that and added the $4820 to my taxable income.

We plan on considering the side work (GC and design stuff) to be taxable wage income but that is minimal compared to the profit we receive from flipping.

Professional fees that relate to producing or collecting taxable income or receiving tax advice are deductible. 

@Liwen Gu, If you only buy a property for $150K you would have a taxable event on the $50K difference between what you sold and what you purchased.Think of it as a two  part rule.  

I believe after that it is taxable. 

If it's sold, it's a taxable event and there's no way for me to 1031 exchange into another asset.Right now, I'd rather build my own portfolio of SFH's, then eventually trade up to apartments as an IRO, than hand over funds to a manager.