You would need to furnish the rental (extra expense), set an appropriate occupancy limit, setup up cleaning and turnover processes and decide on a venue to list it. 

You could lease the appropriate 1/2 for a long term (50 years), allow him/her the ability to assign and transfer the land lease (and make any sale by you of the property subject to the land lease), but you retain ownership. - Dave

They made the money, it wouldn't be appropriate to deduct the things that are deducted from income to arrive at AGI. 

in addition, we are not looking to sell any once purchased and plan to hand them down to our children at the appropriate time.  

Whoopdiedo.The more appropriate approach is to think through every step of whatever process you're trying to accomplish -- lets say for argument sake, a BRRRR -- and who/what you might need to accomplish it.Finding a deal?

You should be able to get an LOI within days of you sending in the appropriate documents. 

This lender told me that since I am former military I should be using the VA rehabilitation loan.

With that said, I felt now was an appropriate time to start getting a bit more involved with BP and taking a deeper look at investment opportunities in Jacksonville, FL, which is where I currently live. 

make sure you know what you are getting into and make the offer appropriate for any risks

Percentages are universal and that's what we deal with here.Case precedence has shown an up to 20% discount to fair market might be appropriate depending on exact facts and circumstances.