I would also prefer to purchase something local (St Louis) so I can learn the ins and outs of property management - i think that is very important in reducing costs and improving cash flow, at least at the beginning.

If rents aren't going down, or go down less than sale prices, then it's probably worth it to hold the property.Remember, declining prices also reduce your insurance and (possibly) taxes. 

If so, this would just accelerate depreciation significantly reducing your taxable income while only costing you the price of the cost seg study.

I had them reduce the price by the estimated asbestos remediation quote ($55K) as well as do a seller lease back for a full year.

Builders are reacting with increased incentives including rate buydowns, but not reducing home prices for the most part.

@Chris Webb - Do you mean paying down points to reduce the interest rate? 

Also, having a good team in place to manage the high turnover is also a must to reduce challenges logistics.  

If you use a contractor the lender knows will do good work and can get it done quickly, it will reduce their concern of a project going bad.  

Whether or not it can reduce your taxes in the current year depends on multiple factors and is case-by-case.Example: you're single, have a full-time W2 job making $150k.

And i want to use my suspended passive loss of $100,000 to reduce my taxes.