I am early in my research, but It seems like PAL rules- passive loss options might be a possibility (I make less than $100000 and less than 25,000 in costs)?

I'm game...A snip-it from a post I did on this thread about investing in Wisconsin: Milwaukee is sitting on some of the most affordable housing in the country, is adjacent to one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, has entertainment & food that rivals every major metro, it's sports teams bat way above average for a small market which attracts hundreds of thousands if not millions of people here annually, economic development has been happening at a level unprecedented since the '50s (we are breaking ground on the world's largest mass timber building in June), has a tech ecosystem on the ground floor of attracting major talents with partners from the fortune 500 companies in town... 

The fridge was full, I mean completely full, of absolutely rotten food.

Food servers, exotic dancers, bar tenders = typically none of that "tip" income is on tax returns, same thing, doesn't "count." 

Very high renters population and several stable employers so not overly worried about population loss in the next 5-10 years.For sale for almost a year, the owner passed and his son lives out of state and wants nothing to do with it. 

Any losses you have will be carried forward to future years. 

The tenant responds she intends to pay, but had lost her job and has to pay for food and electric, etc with nothing left over.I sympathize and at the same time want to be paid. 

You did not mention the type of investment or how the split is handled on revenue or losses (33% to each member of the JV.  

If you need to have an empty building, then you should account for loss rent during the time of reno.

If I'm correct, of the two  I believe the attorney's opinion is better because the attorney and more importantly his E&O carrier, if he has one, would have liability for a covered loss you might suffer for relying on his opinion.