Your best bet is to buy a rowhouse, or condo if you can't afford a rowhouse, in an attractive part of the district and rent it out by the room.

Here are some that I've visited and found very useful:https://www.meetup.com/Addicted-to-ROIhttps://www.meetup.com/RealEstateAtWorkhttps://www.meetup.com/Fixated-On-Real-Estate(it doesn't mean that everything else is worthless, only means that I didn't visit all of them ;)Also I found that some actively moderated Facebook groups are also very useful, in particular would recommend WAREI group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/WAREI

@Sam Shueh Another good point, I have been using active listings, market demand, and rentometer to determine rents.

I am active in Monmouth County NJ which is a pretty hot market so if you are interested in working together on multifamily investment properties please contact me.

While in 5 years I have built up a passive income stream from over 30 doors now while maintaining the W2 income as "reserves" and allowing me to take bets that I won't feel comfortable with if I were doing this full time.

I agree with your logic on doing the rehab myself, however, this would be my first flip and I have no one to actively manage and oversee the whole process as I live about 14 hours from it.

You might want to separate the asset holding (passive) from the operations (active) side.3.

It is ordinary and necessary for real estate investors to notice wear and tear from year to year and claim "depreciation" on their properties.The rule that your accountant is referencing to is the "real estate professional status" which allows you net losses from your rental activities with your other income if your adjusted gross income is above $150,000.

Of course you have to qualify as an accredited investor for most, but if you do qualify it gives you the opportunity to get into bigger deals/more units that you otherwise would not be able to accomplish or afford on your own.You'll also be a limited partner in syndications, i.e. no active role in managing the property, so you'd have to be okay with that as well.Just food for thought!

@Stan R. if this is still an open issue reach out to @David Soble he's a michigan real estate attorney with decades of experience and he's active in all the investor groups around town