LOL.)Another question that comes to mind related to all this is if we can claim any sort of tax write off for the vacancy if it wasn't technically a rental home during that period? 

When I was done with things I actually decided to move into it myself as I came to love the location, and relatively inexpensive housing cost for the area.

The other end is dryers, really simple to repair and relatively light to move.

That's a big house to sell as a single family, especially given the fact that the common rooms (living, kitchen, etc) would be very small in scale for such a relatively large house.So for me, I dont not do this. 

You dont need these entites to deduct all the expenses related to your rentals.

As another side note, I have a very stable, non real estate related job, but am looking for opportunities to take a more active role in the real estate industry.

The last tenants were neighbor-from-hell, drunk & drugged out, criminal trespassers who habitually abused my property during all-night parties with numerous friends and relatives.

Hello all, relatively newbie here!

It is not particularly close to the main hospital or the university.I do think of it as a pretty stable area that is relatively safe for an investment.

Been an owner for 4-5 years, learned quite a few things already, among which is that a commercial kitchen is not something to be made or modified lightly - it has to be properly designed and properly made in order to function well.So I have this retail store of about 1100 sqft that someone wants to take for a small coffee shop with the ability to bake.My question is where do I start searching for someone to design/compute small walk-in cooler, grease trap, vent-a-hood, stove and HVAC on top of that so all this could become useable without anyone getting burned.From my past experience I have local mexican crews who can do any and all of the listed things and they'd do them relatively well except they won;t ever be designed to actually work well together.On the other end of the spectrum I've worked with american general contractors and they tend to cost 2-3 times the Mexican crews and, at least in my case, ended up delivering about same end result (in all fairness it was only kitchen remodeling, not design from ground up; but statement stands valid and I was able to later do almost the same at literally third of the cost).Your expertise is appreciated.