Apparently, they "planned" a road that ends next to this lot and supposedly connects to the main road.It made no sense bc looking at the county site, if this road is ever built, it will cut into 3 other property yards and driveways, and be redundant.

I pet peoples dogs, help the elderly (sometimes just striking up a conversation with them is enough to brighten their day), compliment people on their yards, etc.

You can shed your knowledge on this but my "understanding" is that if he is actively marketing the property for rent, has a sign in they yard, has it advertised on craigslist, has it listed with a property management company etc in December than that might change the deductibility of some of his expenses vs them become part of cost basisPlaced in Service You place property in service in a rental activity when it is ready and available for a specific use in that activity.

I bought my doors at a salvage yard and they were just beautiful.

You have a manager for your apartment bldg, and likewise I also have a competent manager for my houses, quid pro quo.Oft-stated, but once more on house advantages:* Longer tenancies* Greater demand, especially now from all the former homeowners* No tenant squabbling/friction* Easy to sell off a unit to raise liquidity* Larger buyer pool, w/ potential owner-occupant buyers* "Emotional" home buyers may pay more down the road* Tenants pay "all utilities"* Tenants take care of the yard (OK, maybe just sorta...)* IMO, C+ areas will see strong appreciation when credit scores and blue-collar employment recovers further (they've collapsed in price 70% around here)* Can rent on lease option or land contract to get greater cash* Can sell to your tenants for solid gains down the roadI do agree that RE investors with extraordinarily large net worths (let's say $20mm and up) haven't done it by settling for just buying and holding rental houses.

In this case, it was a small deal ($70K), we had looked at a lot of houses, and the broker managed to salvage a deal that almost failed, so I paid without too much complaining.

We put a sign in the yard Saturday (Jan 26th) evening and received dozens of calls and showed the property multiple times.

I worked restaurants as a kid, managed a fish place, so at least I have a clue, if I had to salvage one and replace people and oversee one for awhile but certainly I'd never work one.

Contractors don't clean up and you've got a new listing you just paid money to remodel and there's dust throughout the house, garbage in the yard, etc.

Building a new two car garage is considered new constriction/addition and there is zoning guidelines by street with requirements for yard space (ie can't cover over x% of the lot with building/drive), distance to neighbor, etc.