That way your mortgage will most likely be completely covered and you can live there for free. 

Buy the land now and then sell off enough properties to cover the price of the land and then do a 1031 construction exchange to build on the property with proceeds from the sale of the properties?

Thank you to everyone who chimed in, this has been SUPER helpful.I've been able to negotiate returning half of the deposit with the tenant so I am going to bite the bullet and pay that out of my own pocket.Going forward, I'll remember this as a lesson to make sure this is covered (I'll definitely be buying more properties in the future).Thanks again!

My earlier post covered the rules for deductions overall.

They did pass a law to cover AirBnB-type rentals.Thanks,Chaz

In most cases, especially lower income areas, the presence of hardwood would likely go unappreciated and it may make more sense to preserve that wonderful vintage material and actually cover it with another type of flooring (I've been using Trafficmaster Allure in my units, which I'm obsessed with) until it comes time you decide to sell the property and then expose the old wood, refinish, and use it as a marketing point to the next possible owner( think about how "rare" and "desirable" that same flooring might be after another 20-30 years if preserved). 

One thing I notice about my insurer is it seems they want to cover less and less such as screen enclosures.

If so, one strategy is to purchase something necessary for that business (heavy equipment, truck, ect). 

I typically use hard money to fund my projects but I thought it would be great to bring him in as a cash partner.My question is how do you set up the partnership splits since he isn’t bringing all the cash, he is just bring enough to really cover the hard money fees and holding cost.  

Recently puchased the properties, and it's covered in massive amounts of goat heads, or puncturevines.