I gone to auctions where this is not the case and was notified later my bid did not meet the reserve price and rejected.

Hey Pat, Welcome to the BP community.Love your passion for real estate.Wishing you all the best in this exciting next step!

I'll pay thru this if this is real deal but how do I know I'm dealing with the right person?

This is an expectations issue, not a calculation one.With that said, you need to be looking at properties where you can add units and/or bedrooms.

JD actually helped my wife and I purchase our first deal earlier this year.

Mike licensed Mortgage lender who can do residential owner occ loans is what a RMLO is.they are tough to find because most work for a broker that will not allow one offs.. when I was current with my RMLO license I thought about setting up for this business but too much work for to little money.RMLO needs to be a state licensed mortgage lender and NMLS registered to do owner occ loans. 

W-2, 1099, etc.) with passive income/loss from rentals is to meet the IRS requirements for Real Estate Professional Status or REPS (this also requires material participation in addition to specific requirements to be considered a REPS).Once you have clarity on whether or not you can offset non-passive income with rental losses you can then explore cost seg to accelerate depreciation (and some of the accelerated depreciation from cost seg will impact year 1)...

I thought this was not supposed to be possible?

This resulted in approximately 600,000 gallons of water wasted and nearly $12,000 water bill over the course of 2 months.

Yes, I have seen a good number of deals like this.