If no, then maybe the real lesson is that the deal was too skinny to begin with, also a good learning, and in reality all you've done is pay an opportunity cost versus the next best investment choice you could've made with that money.Of course the other option is to just beat yourself up, but that only robs us of the learning opportunity and leaves us feeling bad about yourselves, which in my experience neither produces success nor happiness, both of which I'm assuming are your goals.

Again, I'm just trying to figure out where potential bodies might be buried as I go down this path.

I should have said something right then and there about the smoking, but I was out the door for work and I wanted to produce a written notice along with an addendum to the lease changing it from a year long lease to a month to month lease. 

Other people really get off on that rush - for me it just produces anxiety.

I personally would rather have zero debt, 12 months emergency fund and then begin to build a portfolio of cash flow producing properties that give me multiple income producing benefits not just money to pay interest on debt to someone else..

@Tamka Brown Regarding the networking company, you can deduct expenses but related to the income that the company is producing.

Any leeway between winning the auction and having to produce funds makes completing a 1031 easier.

The 2 unit home is now on track to producing consistent rental income with a total of 6 tenants.

Variations on this question are frequently posted, demonstrating how confusing the topic is.Bottom line - forming an LLC does not change your tax situation unless you elect to have it taxed as a corporation - which YOU (Andrew Namkoong) probably won't.Whatever INCOME your real estate investments produce will pass through to your individual income tax return, and it will be added to your other sources of income and taxed per the table you provided (ASSUMING you are married and filing jointly - since you provided the federal tax table for married filing jointly.)I recommend getting the BP Tax Book discussed in the thread pinned at the top of this forum.

I have focused on quality over quantity ... fewer doors to manage, but high quality doors with high quality tenants that produce much less volatile cash flow with much less work, in markets where my purchasing power grows (as previously mentioned), and ultimately free and clear in the long run (but not in the beginning to grow) so that nobody and no market cycle is strong enough to knock me down.