Earned income will come with SE taxes, but contributions to the plan will defer income taxes.Another consideration to make are the likely returns that you can get within the plan when compared to the returns you're getting currently investing outside the plan.

Some useful resources I have come across thus far:Cromford Report - Phoenix area (overall real estate market, specific for PHX area)bls.gov (economic information in general)http://www.city-data.com/ (more economic/general information)www.trulia.com (crime, schools, etc.)Are there paid sites/reports that can be found to compare overall markets bullet by bullet for a period of time and over time?

Free or discounted rent is not much of an incentive (compared to SoCal where rents are significantly higher) out here because the demands exceed the value of the rent. 

The fact that you have to pay two sets of closing costs is relatively minor compared to those things.

Either option depends on mostly one factor.....does it make sense to buy the lot and pay the costs of new construction, compared to what the market price for the duplex in good shape is.  

@Matt K. yeah I guess rents don’t scale as much percentage wise compared to prices...it’s crazy that I’m getting $3,000 for 3/1s (800 sq ft)  in deep East Oakland.

They are really tiny compared to other Banks that's why you have to have a local relationship with them to get such good loans.

Here are the stats.Listed Price: $850 / MoMarket Range: $800 - $975 / MoMy Unit: Above Average compared to marketAnd, here are the results so far:Inquires to rent: 48 (in under 24 hours)Showings Held: 8 (So far, more scheduled)Applications 3 (So far)The only problem is all of the people that applied so far have credit under 650 and the person above 650 has an income of 2.7x of rent.

Basically, they want to see how much rent you're getting compared to the expected PITI of what your new mortgage will be...and they all use different formulas to decide how much money they'll cash out to you based on your rental income.So it's not just as simple as giving you 75% of the appraised value of your property.

People are much more likely to tell you, "We'll think about it...we have a couple more places to look at", than they are to tell you "I have a criminal record/bad credit/eviction record/whatever and don't think we'll qualify for your rental".Of course, if your rentals are overpriced, and they are able to find comparable housing for less money, then that's another possibility as to why they aren't coming back to complete an application.