Couple that with about $200/mo in principal reduction and it ends up being an ok investment of roughly 10k.

And your example gives too much weight to the possible reduction...

After that, the price will climb to the $250 price until the event.We hope that the $100 reduction helps!

Thank you LeAnn, It's going to be a slow road for me - working on debt reduction, then building credit for the LLC, but that gives me time to learn and discover what strategy is the best fit for me. 

Keep in mind, you may have $0 or very little cash invested at that point; so, your ROI could be very high or infinite even if the cash flow is slim.If the unleveraged cash flow is only $250 per month, the predictable appreciation needs to be factored in or it's a better flip than a buy and hold.Many investors use IRR to capture the holistic returns, which include the value add, cash flow, and principal reduction, but it's also good to analyze the post-rehab returns by themselves to ensure that the property is a good long term hold (and not just a good flip).

You could also consider selling one property, like the condo, to reduce management burdens and free up capital for reinvestment or debt reduction.

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS has launched new online tools to streamline clean energy credits.

However, HUD will allow for a reduction in the offer if a problem that's unknown now crops up after the offer has been accepted - I know several people (including my mother) that got some money off their HUD deal.

The issue here is you are paying an agreed price for the short sale BASED ON the property being vacated and in a certain condition at the time of possession.What the bank wants is to dump the property on you with the former homeowner still in place so you handle the problem.Depending on if you are flipping this property,renting it out,etc. you can have lost income (holding costs) and damage to the property from the home owner staying after closing.If I was doing this I would go back to the bank and give them 2 prices.One is with the property vacated and secured and one is with the former owner or tenant still in place.If you are going to take on a problem like that I would ask for a substantial reduction in price or not buy at all.The bank has to understand if they want to dump a problem it is going to cost them not to handle it and get the people out or to comply with the purchase agreement.I don't really see how an agents commission plays into this.They can't force the current owner to do anything.I think people get confused with the power they believe brokers and agents have with legal issues in a transaction.

Since the property has already been sold, and you have the proceeds of the sale in hand, I see no tax reduction strategy or tax deferral strategy here.