Yes you can if you meet the requirements.If you are not a real estate professional, the passive activity losses (PALs) generally are deductible only (1) against income from passive activities, (2) when the entire interest in a passive activity is disposed of in a taxable transaction, or (3) under the $25,000 rental loss privilege for qualified rental activities (subject to the $100,000 AGI phase-out).The general is a rule allowing up to $25,000 of active participation(see below) rental real estate losses as a deduction against nonpassive income.The taxpayer must make management decisions with regard to the property, have at least a 10% ownership share in the property, and the cannot be a limited partner.

Hi and congrats, yes an inspector will do a single report and will make notes of deficiencies on each particular subject and he should make note on were the deficiency is located, property A or B.

This subject is a topic that is often discussed on this forum:https://www.biggerpockets.com/...Explore past discussions - you can learn a lot there! 

The other issue is purchase of property can result in current assessment anyway since property taxes are subject to an annual percentage cap.

I have a template for the lease option and I'm supposed to mail it out to the seller because she had agreed to it... can anybody please help shed some light on the subject. 

As a residential investor you don't want the subject to be zoned commercial, it makes it harder to get low rate financing.

Some of your questions are good but I did write an entire post on this subject for Bigger Pockets that you can find HERE.  

Those areas are "nice" areas but "nice" is subjective based on what you are looking to do with the home.

And they are using metal instead of lumber.Interested in the subject too

It states as follows:"Subject's use is legal non-conforming which means that if the subject is ever destroyed by a fire, it cannot be rebuilt as such."