I've been toying with the idea of getting into rentals as some more supplemental income, and although I've struggled with the math as far as justification, i believe the main reasons folks here by rentals (please correct if I'm wrong) are: Cashflow (although I've seen people do deals eg on Roofstock for only $100-200/mo) + appreciation (when sold) + taxesSo assuming I'm correct there, then the potential tax benefits are 30% of the reason to do rentals.

By trade, I am an Family Law Attorney; however, Real Estate is my main passion, so I made the switch about a year and half ago.  

I would also encourage you to do a Double Closing because having a property under contract, with no intent to purchase, and marketing the property is illegal in many states.

I bought my house in 2015, with the intent of one day turning it into an income property.

My main question was: When I'm looking at numbers (and say I'm targeting a MFU listed around $80k for instance), if I pay for the multi-family unit using a HELOC from my primary residence, do I load that number into my calculations as "cash to close?" 

He’s in tax foreclosure has till may 30th to pay $21,000 which he has no intentions on doing.

I also invest mainly in Des Moines off you’d ever like to meet up reach out.

My 2 main goals with real estate is to start up a wholesale and rehab business along with acquiring many rental properties to build my passive income.

Since the intent from the get go is to actually purchase as a investment property and the owner occupation is really just a manipulation of Mortgage regulations this would be a more accurate description of that intent.

If it's purely/mainly from extra money you've put into it, then that hardly counts, right?