That's half your budget for vacancy, repairs, and capex combined.

At $40,000 combined income sounds like you will be in 12% tax bracket when it comes to calculating recaptured depreciation.  

My action plan that I currently have in mind is one of two things or a combination of both:1.

You could also combine with option 2.2) What do you mean by use as collateral?

I have used a combination of Zillow, Rentometer, and MLS to find my rates, but the best tool I have had is reaching out to property managers in the area.

My wife and I have strong W2 earnings at about 250k combined and it doesn’t appear that any flow through tax breaks are occurring due to owning a rental.

Hello fellow investors,Berkeley published their ADU ordinance last month according to which up to 2 ADU units are allowed on multi family properties with a combined size of 1200 sq. ft. : https://www.cityofberkeley.inf...But the doc also says there will be Impact fees assessed for any ADU construction above 750 sq. ft.

Also, the combination of bold black font on a bright yellow background has been the most successful format.

We used a combination of hard + private money to fund this deal.

That's certainly planning for the worst (combined with a self-fulfilling prophecy)Or2.