@Carol Bloom  Both the House and Senate tax reform bills include no proposed changes to 1031 exchanges of real property.

There will always be losers in any legislation change.

This means that when you sell your rental a few years down the road, your basis for capital gains calculations will be the tax basis you established at the time you converted to rental use.If you sell down the road, the 2 of 5 year rule changes to a 5 of 8 yar rule for the section 121 capital gains exclusion under the proposed tax reform pending in Congress. 

If, after depreciation, you expect to have a net passive loss next year AND if you will have a lower tax bracket rate under the tax reform proposal, then paying your property tax this year will be better than paying twice next year.

Right now the proposal being floated is that instead of having to lived in the property for 2/5 years it will bump to 5/8.  

Here is the proposal I wrote for them. 

Perhaps there will be no change but at least you may have better tenants, you may have created a way to have a better rapport with the people living there.6. consider what you will need to do beyond #5. so as to be able to populate the place with good tenants.7. meet with the lender (referred by family and or friends) and explain what you're proposing to do.

@Jay Hinrichs has proposed the 3C's for lending:1. character of the borrower2. collateral3. capacity to repayThis sounds like common sense to protect your funds and is one of the reasons why he has grown so successful. 

What I would do is analyze 20-30 deals in each of your proposed areas and find the ones that seem like they will work best for you.

I will try to provide some perspective from my experience as an institutional lender with one of the largest banks in the world and as a commercial real estate hard money lender with iBorrow.At the bank, me going to loan committee means that I have vetted the real estate, borrower, and my proposed loan structure with what is usually an office or regional manager.