I am a fantastic antagonist (bad cop) and my wife iis always the good cop.... and it worked extremely well.To the question of justifying retention of security deposits... there are couple of steps that can help this process along and make the outcome almost bullet proof.The first part is... that everything is documented... and everythng has its picture taken.The process starts with a Move-in inspection conducted on the landlords form by the tenant... and in triplicate.The process starts to end with a Move-out inspection conducted by the landlord on their form in triplication.And of course with pictures taken in each instance preferably with the tenants smiling faces in the pics.The process continues by comparing the outcomes of the two inspections, figuring out how much it is going to cost to fix the damage that wasn't id'd in the Move-in inspection, but was discovered in the Move-out inspection and then deducting that amount from the security deposit and sending the remainder (assuming there is any) to the tenant.Best of luck!

The goal here is to build wealth, while allowing the rental income to cover your cost of acquiring the property with a mortgage, while at the same time using the tax benefits of depreciation.Here is the exampleLet’s say you invested in a fourplex that had a rental income of $128,000 and operating expenses of $46,000Rental Income = $128,000 less Operating Expenses of $46,000 = Net Operating Income of $82,000Your mortgage intrest for the year was $64,000 and your deprecation deduction was $16,000.Net Operating Income $82,000 less Mortgage Interest of $64,000 less Depreciation of $16,000 = $2,000 in Taxable Income

I am also considering having a property management company take it as most cost 10% percent of the rent, wich is also tax deductible, so about $100 a month not to be on call 24/7 for the tennant seems like it might not be to bad.

Who gets the tax deductions?

You may or may not be able to state in your lease that the tenant must pay for professional carpet cleaning (WI forbids it), but still, I can charge and deduct for Stanley Steamer when the time comes.In the case of breaking a lease with a very short notice, the tenants, by defaulting, are forcing Rodney to spend time and money advertising and showing, in addition to experiencing a vacancy (lost rent).

It has been working out nicely, eventually she will no longer have to pay taxes on her work income by offsetting it with the deductions from the homes.

That version of the bill specifically prohibited imprisoning people for refusing to pay the tax penalty levied on those without insurance.

That's because of the depreciation deduction.

Changes alluded to in the article (shorter terms, higher rates, pre-payment penalties, kill interest deduction) would make housing less affordable.

Yes, you get to deduct the interest paid on your taxes.