Drive up from the Fox Theatre and you'll see microbreweries, upscale dining, shopping, etc... drive through at midnight and you see all kinds of respectable folks out walking around.And don't get me started on Atlantic Station... best place to go watch a midnight showing ever.

Knowing that, you can figure out where you are with respect to your plan to move.

Nathan,I do admire your respect for rules, and agree that we should follow them when they exist.

There was another thread recently about whether or not being a real estate investor was a respectable profession.

Make them an ally, respect that fact that they need to make money and mutually figure out how a good relationship will work.The agent should be investor friendly and have experience with the same.

Likewise with #7 -- clearly, you don't have much experience with how taxes work or how investments are handled with respect to taxes.

Also, along these lines, a previous tax preparer recommended that I might treat each rental unit of the duplex as its own property, since each was placed into service at different times, and thereby (I assume) be represented as such on Schedule "E" in columns A and B respectively (ie, Property A= initially rented unit, and Property B=newly rented unit as of Aug 2011).

This article has a pretty good summary, although I can't vouch for the chart at the end (it appears to be wrong with respect to Florida): http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-asset-protection-charging-orders.htmlhttp://www.foley.com/files/publication/ea1efec4-6da7-430f-9a2a-cbde0a85b18f/presentation/publicationattachment/182846ac-53ac-4e62-9948-d2395ff83078/americanbankruptcyinstitutejournal.pdf

That being said, I also have hardworking, non-drinking straight laced people... but of course these aren't the tenants we are really talking about.My suggestions:-Treat them with respect.

I will charge my daughter and her friends a below market rental rate - it would still have positive cash flow of several hundred dollars/month after PITI.I will not treat the property as a rental for tax purposes - no writeoffs for anything outside of what an owner occupied home is entitled.Once my daughter and her friends move out (probably 2-3 years down the line), I will convert the property to a legitimate rental property.I think that this would be a good way for me to break into the headaches of being a landlord but am concerned that I may be pushing the ethical boundaries with respect to the mortgage, IRA funds, and tax treatment of the property.