Utilize a 1031 Exchange: Under IRS Code Section 1031, you can defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting the proceeds from the sale into a similar “like-kind” property.

If we made a mistake it was not utilizing our mentor even more.Deal analysis is something like this:Deal 1  sold this week at auction for a loss, probably a $4,500 loss, this is in my profit calculation.Deal 2 Bought for 20k sold for 45 with 10k down and 35k financed for 8 years at 8%  I counted this as a 45k asset but probably should have only counted it as 35 since the 10k has been reinvested and is reflected in other assets.Deal 3, bought for 10k and foreclosed on a non performing borrower, we will be all in for under 20k, and should sell for @ 45k, maybe more if we do owner financing.  

If your credit is decent then I would utilize your cash as leverage to leverage:1.

Trying to manage a $1M Airbnb rental while it sounds good you got $6500 in bookings you still have significant costs to operate it with maintenance repairs, utilities etc.

If you're planning on utilizing a self-showing model with cameras you'll need to make sure you disclose to prospective tenants viewing the property that there are cameras on premise.At scale, we've coordinated 160,000+ on-demand/self showings with smart lockboxes over the past 5 almost 6 years with very few issues.

This explains why your taxable income was zeroed out on Form 1040, even if the standard deduction wasn’t utilized.

Assuming you don’t meet the 500 hour test, you will likely need to document the time of others spent working on your property.In addition, you need to have guests at your property as well.Until you are 100% sure you can utilize the short term rental loophole, I’d wait to do the cost segregation study.

When your tax professional prepares your 990t they will utilize the Cost Seg to minimize the UDFI tax. 

I am putting it up on Facebook, Craigslist, etc. but is there anything else a newbie can utilize that you have found success with?

Using a Heloc utilizes the equity that is sitting dormant, it provides tax relief (once again check with your tax professional) as it is interest income, you can typically get a reasonable rate andlastly there is no out of pocket money.