You want an investment that pays for itself, including mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and even some money set aside for a reserve to cover vacancies and capital expenditures.

But then my cash flow won't be high, and when trying to get another property my DTI won't be great because 75% of the rent won't meet the mortgage.

Gifting equity in a house may be more trouble than it is worth if you are not near the life-time exclusion1) Potentially having to get the property appraised everytime an equity is gifted2) Having a title company update the title every time3) Exemption of the gift tax return is normally for cash gifts below the annual gift tax exclusion, you may still need to file if you gift non-cash4) If there is partial ownership over several years, having to properly pro-rate certain items such as real estate taxes, mortgage interest and rental income if the property is a rentalBest of luck 

The property was rented and generated $160 cash flow after mortgage, taxes, insurance and property management fees were paid.

on the HML did U not get a first position mortgage or deed of trust with lenders Alta ?

They will pay a higher mortgage payment because they are not trying to cash flow.

The tax benefits refer to the tax deductions from mortgage interest and property tax.The returns mainly rely on appreciation, and the cash flow only improves in the last few years, also depending on securing the 5% refinance rate.I've learned a lot from this forum, but as I start to operate on my own, I'm still not completely confident.

. $300sqft to build at least.If you have any sort of mortgage on the property you will need an attorney to handle the mountain of paperwork the bank will give you for a lien release. 10k+, also probably some nightmare terms to have to build and sell immediately and god knows what.At this point a year has passed and you have spent at least $60,000 cash, you're about to break ground on a structure that will cost you at the very least $400,000 to build, you are still 1 year away from cashing out because you have to now build a house.

However if you had done a warranty deed (or a special warranty deed if you still have a mortgage on it) instead, your LLC has a claim against you for the issue on the title, and you in turn can go back to your initial title insurance to fix it.Some title insurance will allow to transfer the coverage to an LLC that you own 100%, but not all of them do or they may require an additional fee.

@Chris LinIf you were to include Equity growth (from appreciation and mortgage pay-down) what sort of returns would you have?