Just a heads up on STR's, you won't be able to operate one in the Austin city limits, and several parts of Travis County, unless you are a primary homeowner.

I wanted to get into this industry for a long time and figured I would get an early start now so that by the time I retired from the military, I would be ahead of the curve.

-If someone has interest I would follow up with them daily and push them to take action. 

But in most cases, go ahead and claim 100% if you can. 

@Champ Leong, beyond the ability to actually access that $20k, and qualifying for loans given the source of the down payment, you will also likely hurt your credit score by pulling so much on the credit cards, your DTI ratio could get pushed out of whack thereby not allowing you to qualify for a mortgage.Lastly, your payments for that advance will likely be very high.  

I also promised to fix it up, which pushed him to accept.

The man went on vacation to Miami the week that my tenant was supposed to move in after already pushing back the move in date 3 times!

So from a financial standpoint, if you can continue paying the minimum and putting any additional into income producing investments that can return a rate higher than your interest rate, you will net ahead.  

If you don't take the standard deduction (and most do these days) you could deduct the interest on your mortgage.Looking ahead to next year, you'll file a Schedule E.

Tenants have all lived there between 2-30 years, so rents can be pushed up.