Of course that floor joist carried all the weight of the roof, transferring to downstairs wall, so we had to stop the job, get a structural engineer and have a fix done. 

Initially it was difficult to find good tenants - people were still loosing jobs in Phoenix at the time of purchase.

She now wants to do a complete gut job or even tear it down and rebuild it into a 3-family house.

It doesn't file it's own tax return and all activity of the properties are on your personal Schedule E.  

Just like being in the military everything is regulations, but nothing really made sense about my job until I went overseas and actually did it.

It can be difficult, not impossible, to do the acquisition, renovation, and leasing if you have a full time job.

It’s my job to do a thorough analysis of the comps.

With all that said we have spent a ton of money for data looking at foreclosure rates, banking rates, where jobs are being created, where jobs are losing out, where schools are seeing rapid raises in enrollment, where governments at the local levels have been tax friendlier, where inventory on the open pubic markets are not meeting demand, and house transactions.

His name is Mel for the purpose of listing out our situationsHere are some of the realities of our situation:Mel has a lower FICO (610-620 I believe)My FICO score is higher (770)Mel has a W2 paying job where he is salariedI am a 1099 with two separate companies (Independent Contractor)Mel has been FHA approved up to $300k I have not because I don't have a "steady income" even though my income is higher than average, they don't like the fact that it is inconsistent because I am not salaried.We currently live in Orange CountyLooking in Pomona (LA County) and Riverside County for property because anywhere else $300k is unrealistic to find a multi or a SFR to flip.Now if you've come this far and read all that....

I still have a day job, I'm a real estate broker and have been for 23 years, but currently specialize in Glass boxes in the skye in Downtown Chicago.