If the primary purpose is vacation, with a little AirBNB research thrown in, then you *might* be able to make a case to deduct a small percentage of your overall expenses.  

I would prefer to save the money and leverage debt to make another purchase with as small of a down payment as I can. 

I'm 100% convinced "small city" investing is where it's at.

I will look into the tax benefits for student loans, the benefit may even outweigh the small interest difference from the USAA loan.

Here are some guides to this site that can help:Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area--MEETSet up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you--KEYWORD ALERTSRead Beginner’s Guide-- GUIDECheck out BP Podcasts--PODCASTSFinally, my advice to you would be to take small steps and be disciplined with taking ACTION.  

At this stage I think we'll probably just go forward with things the way they are and try to get the property paid off in the next 5 yrs so that we don't have to worry about the fluctuating interest rates.This is why we started on such a small scale after all... so we could learn the ins and outs with minimal $ at stake.

you have ft drum up there and a lot of small towns with colleges. lots of opportunities if you dont hate living in the cold.

Property: small town north of  Austin TX- My Offer: $145k- 20% down ($29,000)  , 30 year fixed , 4.5% interest rate  ($116,000 loan)

My goal is to then invest in another within about a year, with this small of a return, I would not have the cash to do that.

Just like no one advertises interest rates for low FICO scenarios, no one advertises rates that have been dinged for "small loan amount" either.