I'm interested in learning a bit more about typical vacancy percentages, size of the local population being serviced, reasonable percentage of effective gross income for expenses, etc. as well Peter.Hopefully some experienced member(s) will sound off!

We manage a 4 unit that the owner bought for $420,000 and he is grossing over $10k per month with MTR. 

State/local are determined by your state of residence, not the state the property securing a loan you hold, or property you own is located in.  

Even if that is not your intention, the IRS could decide that is what it was which would mean that the seller would have lost his 1031 ability since he "sold" you the house when he accepted the first payment.

You are required to file a complete and accurate return, which means reporting the income that you earned along with atleast the direct expenses that you incurred on your rental.There are two comflicting forces - Your tax accountant wants to be aggressive with deductions because it will entitle you to paying less taxes(now or in the future).Your lender wants to see as much income as that will increase your Debt to Income Ratio(DTI).The good thing is that you can speak with your lender about 'one time expenses', that were only incurred in that year and are not reoccuring. 

I started investing at the age of 47.

@Shivani Brijmohan, while I cannot speak to NY, I will say in general:You should know how the property will be reassessed when you buy the property.  

This is a great place to learn and to connect with people so take advantage of all the great resources.

We've been looking for over 6 months and this would be the second time we've walked because of foundation issues.

Aloha @Dustin Amodo May HungJeff GradThese are 2 of the top CPR consultant/attorneys on Oahu.