I hoping this role will help me get my feet wet in the industry and give me a chance to learn the ropes while building valuable connections.

A 1031 exchange would allow you to move into better properties in different locations while indefinitely deferring all tax on gain and depreciation recapture.

From a tax perspective if i am a passive investor how do i stand to gain from deprciation?

Start with one property to gain confidence before scaling.

Biggest gains are if you do it out of your IRAs.

Land is valuable as I could purchase a new mobile home and install and less costs since utilities are already on the land. 

The new data shows that a number of Austin suburbs with at least 5,000 people logged big gains: Dripping Springs (23.3%), Liberty Hill (14.9%), Georgetown (10.6%), Kyle (9%) and Leander (7.6%).

The cons as i see it include loosing the 2 of 5 year cap gain exception, typically not an ideal rental because the emphasis at purchase was buying a good home for your family and not a rental with optimal return (my ex-home consistently has the lowest cash flow for equity in my RE portfolio), not disconnected enough from the property causes addition angst on damage and may result in over improvement.  

Are you trying to hand your “friend” a 50% taxable gain that you’re going to keep?

Very large out-of-pocket medical expenses are also part of this game.Balance gains and losses on your investments.