Heck of a job keeping all the paperwork from 22 years ago. 2 realtors and an inspector and none of them knew an old house or deck would be up to code?

I continued paying what I had paid before, with the additional money purely going to principal.The recast to a lower amount was purely to reduce my committed monthly payment to a point that I could get my property to cash flow if I had to move out (job loss, etc).

Today we are economically diverse and showing job growth in several sectors.Having said that, I am not an economist (or a fortune teller) so these are just my thoughts after having gone through the Great Recession and knowing how housing-dependent we were then.Melanie

My job has steady income, but no W2s and no pay stubs.

I'm a 30 year old husband and soon-to-be dad in a dead end sales job in Alabama.

You can tell who is actually passionate about their job and passionate about the market usually pretty quickly.

I guess my challenge right now is to define the strategy and balance all the factors, such as job and population growth (value increase), cashflow (demand & supply market, interest rate, property tax, maintenance cost), and risk control (insurance etc). 

There are several different types of income in the US tax code.Two main types are “active income” and “passive income".Active income is money you earn from working, such as wages from a W-2 job or income from running a business.Passive income is money you earn from investments like real estate, stocks, or rental income from your RE portfolio where you earn $ without actively working.Normally, you can't use passive losses (like losses from real estate investments) to offset active income like your salary from a W-2 job.That is unless you are an RE Pro.The reality is, that Real Estate Pro status is just a filing status similar to filing married or jointly.And if you are a real estate professional you CAN use passive real estate losses to offset active income from other sources.To qualify as an RE Pro you must:1.

After a couple of years of treading the path to frugality to build this financial runway, I've networked with the greatest people who made this all happen, of course, it took the strength, determination, time, etc to place myself where I am today but, without the mentorship of my two great mentors whom I wish used BiggerPockets so I can mention, I don't believe I would have made it thus far relying on some whimsical dream that this will all pan out accordingly, thank you for everything Greg and Lashawn.In addition, I would like to thank Bigger Pockets for connecting me with the greatest realtor @Stephen Schmitt Who took my dreams and aspirations to the core when we first connected and spoke about my future goals to replace my W2 job for financial freedom. within three months of me deciding to pull the trigger and get pre-approved, we found this killer cash-cow that apprised over purchase price!!! 

Ben Russell has done an excellent job of covering differences in the lease.