Just focusing on the passive income you want to achieve will leave you chasing cash flow which will have you buying properties in worse areas with harder tenancies that seem to cash flow better, but will have large cap ex.Any time someone asks a question about where to invest and it can be anywhere, they aren't ready to invest and are opening themselves up to every pitch in the world on an area.

Imagine making millions of dollars over the course of your career and then having to pay 30-50% every year to uncle sam instead of compounding that cash over time.This is exactly what real estate professionals have learned to mitigate.To reduce their taxable income, they just buy a building every year, do a cost seg, and use depreciation to reduce their tax liability dramatically.Their personal wealth snowball grows much larger and much faster than their W2 counterparts who give most of their money back to the government each year.Following this strategy as a real estate professional is one of best ways to end up with a much larger net worth at the end of your career.

So, if she bought the bitcoin for $1 million and is now using it to close on a $10 million property, that is a $9 million gain that needs to be accounted for in her income tax.

You may want to post this over on Passive Pockets.

It's simple enough to make a row for income, and another for expenses, and then subdivide those expenses, and add them up in the total expenses cell and then subtract the gross income from those total expenses to get my net.

Both higher income yields and appreciation in value. 

Through proactive maintenance, efficient tenant placement, and careful financial management, I optimized rental income and ensured a steady cash flow.

Sorry for the tough love, but not buying the above.You & your wife's salaries should cover your expenses, while the income from your remodeling gigs should be saved.Recommend you review EVERY dollar you made and what you spent it on in 2024.

WIth the new FHA & Fannie Mae legislation, many lenders are forecasting the rental income from additional units, even if they're not a zoned duplex.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.