It's a non-warrantable condo, so I just accepted my horrific rate and I'm hanging on until I can hopefully refinance and see some real cash flow. 

The small difference in the interest rate there is unlikely to change your cash flow that much, and it almost always makes more sense to hang onto more of your cash as long as a deal cash flows. 

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies that spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

Hang tight until you find a good deal, then nab it.   

People will rightfully assume that you cannot know as much as an older person, you just cannot have that much experience.The best way to gain people's trust is to do a couple deals and get happy satisfied clients who will use you again and refer you to others ......I don't see a shortcut here.Or else you have to have the deal of the century.   .people will sometimes sacrifice their comfort level when there is money to be made..Good for you though for starting so early, just hang in there and don't give up...

Depending upon that, and your financial health I would just recommend hanging tight and adding another avenue of future income.

agree with the other comment, different markets are doing different things. also, "be greedy when others are fearful." what people might be afraid of is, lots of commercial ARMs coming up on their rate adjustments, & the new rates (compared to 5y ago when they first purchased) will kill their cashflow, so they'll sell, and if everyone is doing this at once, supply might outweigh demand, everyone has to sell for less than they planned, and everyone who hangs on to their similar properties gets to recalculate their estimated mkt value with the new going cap rates. i don't personally think this is going to cause as insane of a shift as some people do, but it's all speculative, we won't know til it happens. if you can find a deal that pencils with 30y fixed debt, do it. 

Yeah, it's an interesting model--I can see how it could work really well in some scenarios and not work at all in others. ...for one thing, you have to use furnishings that in-line with the look and grade of the property, and which are appealing to the typical tenant--which I'm sure can be a bit hit and miss...   ...I suppose that one hidden benefit with a furnished unit is that you don't have so much wear and tear from tenants moving furniture in and out, hanging pictures on the walls, etc....I just finished a rehab at a LTR property--the tenants were pretty good and didn't cause any excessive wear/damage, but even then, there's always a lot of patching and re-painting that needs to be done after long term tenants leave....

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies that spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

I think I've gotten the general messages that:a) Don't invest JUST for the tax advantages.b) I need to do more research.Excited to do some more research and learn more by hanging around these forums.