Also I have several uncles who are in the business of real estate and have way more properties then I do and they constantly give me advice.All of my Dad's properties are located in a very small town (200pop) with no work in town, it's more of a retirement place where tenants collect welfare and don't really work.

I house hack in my property and collect rent so I'm trying to decide if I want to apply the rental income to my actual income.I also am looking for a tax professional I can keep meeting with on a quarterly basis when my business starts to pick up.The last tax professional I worked with did not do the best job so I would love any and all recommendations!

IMO, cash flow is a good way to invest in real estate because in the long term the property has a chance to appreciate, but we are not counting on that, but during the time you own the property you will be able to collect a 'dividend'.  

A slightly significantly more involved question: How do I take the desired monthly income that the group would like to collect from the property and back-calculate the down payment we need to save up in order to purchase a property?

Make sure you collect a security deposit as well.

IF I sold doing a "Seller Financed Note" of say 175K after a down payment of say just 25K, and then payments that kept my AGI under 100K, I assume the "value of the note" would not count in the current years income, since it has not "been collected" yet?

My interest rate will go up from 2.75% currently to 3.375 and my mortgage balance will go from 262k to 510k.This is about the lowest price I’ve seen on a decent duplex like this that is in a good neighborhood and doesn’t require major renovations.My goal is long term - to be collected $8-10k/mo by 2015.

Lesson #3 - Strategy for collecting inherited debtWhen we were buying our fourplex, we received the rent roll and it wasn’t to difficult to figure out.

@Nick Ferrari-  If you own the house and are looking to refinance it, then you don't have to do anything but collect 75%-80% of the appraised value at the refinance. 

Now that it has been over a year since this incident with no news from the ex-tenant, I am considering to work either through a Collection Agency or a Law Firm to collect the owed money.