Lastly, and more generally, what are some tips that people learned from trial and error, both positively and negatively, that they remember from beginning and growing more successful?

This took away from 40% of my mortgage interest that could have been deducted, I did a second trial return without the rental income and I got about $500 more back.That being said, I am not interested in cheating the government, and (I think) I want the income to show for when I try to buy my first investment property to buy and hold later this year.

My impression as well would be that free-and-clear properties make trial lawyers' mouths water, and that the presence of the debt will give some natural lawsuit immunity should you become a potential target, so that has some value in our litigious society.I would also take advantage of the low fixed rates and great buyers market, using your payoff cash to grow your little empire.

I signed with her in March, for 1 Month as a trial, since then I changed agents.

There should be some new faces soon given the $1 trial :D

What they would have to produce at trial is an agreement that you "had a meeting of the minds" and a particular property was involved and money traded hands and they were damaged by your actions. 

Doing some free trials so contact me.

There will be variations of the terms above based on program and lender however these are the terms set by the Non-QM DSCR 1-4 unit that my company uses.Hard Money while it can be used for a purchase I would recommend more for short term lending.

My point is being creative is good, being foolish can cost you a lot of money and headaches.While I haven’t tried your idea above, I have used a variation of it.

That's effectively just a variation on the due-on-sale clause.