Or do you want to let it slide and send the signal that your soft and can be taken advantage of, a very slippery slope.

In this scenario since he has to hold it as a rental for at least a year plus two as a principal residence so he must hold it for three years.Jeff Sielicky,The reestablishment of the capital gains exclusion and the new property as well as the possibility to establish some basis from the 1031 are your advantage.

Andy,The markets that got hit the hardest now have the toughest competition.

What these turn key rental companies conveniently fail to tell you is that there may be other expenses you have to pay after you purchase the property, such as repair expenses, vacancy, eviction (if applicable), a new tenant placement fee etc.Since they know that you are an out-of-state (even foreign) investor, they know that they can take advantage of you and that you have no way to check on what they are doing.

It might be a good idea to have some units that are slightly out of that range to avoid direct competition.

And of course I would like the most that I can get in tax advantages.

Places such as Maricopa county in AZ and Vegas along with some other MSA's have potential to take advantage of the depressed sale prices while presenting very nice cash flow opportunities.

I don't put dishwashers or disposals in homes unless its in an area that I need to beat the competition.

But you should be able to shorten your DOM if you're competitive with your pricing.

Once the mortgage is paid off, you have the ability to get a cash out refi, tax free, renters also do not have such an advantage!