All of that and nothing, absolutely nothing.

(It drives me absolutely nuts when I see yahoo wholesalers pitching "rental" make readys or claiming that a home is "rent ready" when the home is pretty much worn out and only has  a few years left.)   

But ya- you should absolutely find a tax professional (preferably one licensed with letters on their names) who specializes in real estate. 

I did a 3 day class with Fortune Builders in my area and absolutely fell in love with real estate. 

@Jay HinrichsYou are absolutely right!

@Gilberto Grajeda Absolutely, my pleasure.

I know FHA accepts __% for 30 days then it drops a few percentage points and there is an absolute minimum they won't go past.

This site is an absolute gold mine!

The challenge there is that accumulating enough properties to generate cash flow on par with a solid middle-class income (especially in a metropolitan area) requires deploying a substantial amount of capital to acquire the properties, and achieving attractive returns requires careful selection of the properties (to buy below market value), attractive financing, and likely some amount of rehab work along the way -- all of which require a degree of expertise to do successfully, as evidenced by BP itself.If someone is unwilling or uninterested in really digging in to understand REI, they could of course still own rental properties through a turnkey provider or a REIT, but in both cases are giving up some of the upside potential that rewards the patient and diligent.To be clear, I think REI is a great choice for building wealth and Real Estate in some form should absolutely be part of almost everyone's portfolio.

You are looking for the best risk adjusted returns, not just the highest absolute day one cash flow ... total returns include cash flow (not just day 1 but for the life of the investment), mortgage pay down, and appreciation (both forced and market).