Income minus $400 for expenses (50% rule) minus $378 (P&I, insurance and taxes) leaves a pitifully small $22 cash flow.

this is something I have done with post-tax monies but am no turning my attention to retirement.so my questions are as follows:1.  

I've talked to a couple tax professionals since then and been told that that boat has already sailed.  

Thanks Josh Caldwell and Albert Bui I talked to couple of loan agents and they all said I don't qualify for a conventional if I am self employed without 1 full yr of tax return even though I had solid full time work history of 10+yrs with no gaps in employment.

In order to fully defer all tax you must purchase at least as much as you sell and use all the proceeds from the sale in the next purchase or purchases.  

However it's not that simple because there are plenty of costs you need to factor in before you figure that 2400 a month income and the biggest one is property taxes, this is the biggest thing that will kill a rental deal (aside from the location of course).

My retirement account is a Florida state retirement fund (so, I would have to quit my current job and possibly pay taxes and applicable penalties on the 70k and, there is a 3 month waiting period once employment is terminated).  

The numbers of a average deal they got is:Rent: 925Annual taxes: 847Anual Insurance:  455Property management (via the TK company): 10%The property will be fully rehabbed, however, with the financing provided I am just not able to make any numbers work.

Once I find the property that is in the civil suit, I locate the property owner by searching for the person who pays taxes on the property. 

The Finance Minister announced steps to curb the influx of foreign capital into the Canadian Real Estate Market  (in which he really meant TO and Vancouver ... down east we are not really suffering from the influx of foreign money ... sure we lost a 50-unit deal a couple of years ago to a Chinese investor, but the property was not worth what s/he paid, so we'll see it back on the market eventually).That said, Ottawa is only removing a loophole which has allowed foreigners to purchase a residence in Canada, claim it as their principal residence and then benefit from the personal residence {captial gains} tax exemption when they sell.