For discussion lets assume typical Midwest suburbia.

So if you are purchasing a house with land, you typically would try to allocate more of the price to the house, as you don't take depreciation on land.If your goal is maximum taxable writeoffs and you have a number of other properties, you may want to look into cost segregation (but it won't be worth it if you only have this property).Keep in mind that when you sell the property, you'll have to pay tax on the depreciation (usually a 25% rate).Be sure to chat with a CPA about allocating the purchase price in a sale, as you need to follow one of the multiple acceptable ways to allocate.Also, depending on how the rest of your portfolio looks and your timetable for holding, being less aggressive in allocating the purchase to high depreciation items may work out better. 

In addition to the checklist, I would also request the following:1) background/credit check, similar to tenant screening (need advise on application to use)2) pre approval letter from bank used for refinancing3) referral from current lender and past lenders (not sure if this is typical?)

To address this many states pass laws concerning the sale of a controlling interest in an entity... so while you may think you've avoided paying transfer taxes that is not always true.People also do this to prevent a property from being re-assessed in jurisdictions where a sale would typically trigger that.

Typically you can request T12 financials, some will also provide the past 2 or 3 years.

Your uncle may be right about the 27 acres for $3k in AZ claim, but numbers like that are typically seen way out in the desert, miles from the nearest town (Holbrook, Kingman, St.

Banks typically won't come off their listing price very much. 

I'm starting to wonder how much affiliate commissions/earnings a podcast typically makes with these.  

Therefore, most underwriters take the loss to lease percentage of the gross potential rents number and apply that percentage to the pro forma projections or assume they can operate the property better by leasing units strategically by having leases expire in hotter (temperature and demand) months, thus applying a lower percentage of GPR loss to lease (typically 2% to 4%).

Building looks great and is in good condition...interior of course, is your typical rural post office with a suite of boxes, manned desk and your typical ramshackle disorganized US Mail back room.