I'm not saying when people say they are buying x more in 2 months or 2018 is bad but we don't know their investment and exit strategy and more over their risk appetite.  

Mold issues, excessive moisture in the attic, standing water... these can be hard issues to fix or even get a handle on how to fix sometimes.  

I have a duplex  that my two tenants share the utilities charges.  One tenant with the larger unit pays 2/3 of electric, gas and water.  The other tenant pays the 1/3,  During the summer, the electric bill was almost ...

This, coupled with a reduction on the price of the property given to us by the seller and the passage of about a year leaves us with needing only a few hundred thousand dollars when we finally closed a few months ago.Being left with over $2M on the loan, we've been making rather large payments to get rid of the amount in excess of what we need.

Also, with me living there, I am pretty confident that things would rarely get “out of hand” or that my tenants would cause excessive damage/wear to the property.

I can rent each unit out for 950 producing gross rents of 2850 leaving me with an excess of $350/month.

People get tripped up with the 14k exclusion number as if a gift in excess of that amount triggers a tax liability.

Depending on your appetite for risk you can invest in non performing or performing.You do not have to deal with tenants, toilets or termites and can get double digit returns.

Perhaps there is someone willing to take a second position for the excess.

I also want to get more familiar with possibly structuring an LLC properly for both protection and from lawsuits and possibly from excessive tax.