And someone jumping into this as a complete newbie can expect that they have a decent chance of making some expensive newbie mistakes.

@Dave Van Horn I was thinking about this too, it looks like there are some nice filters that last about 10 years which aren't too expensive.

There are several reasons for that including but not limited to, landlord friendliness, lower prices, population growth projection, positive job growth rates, lower crime rates, 1% rule, to name a few.

Agents will get a lower commission.

Equipment has gotten far less expensive also.

Lower Westside (I think) is not far from GA.

If banks didn’t have fractional lending they would not give mortgages either as with inflation you lose money over timeFor example:Take $1M as an example of a portfolio and put it at 7% seller financed vs putting it into an investment that gets 6% but doesn’t pay your principal back and is taxed at a much lower rate and see how big a difference that isRoughly $1.4M interest vs $1.8M and taxed at 15% less rate it makes a huge difference.

I have a tax question regarding how to report my rental income when my tenant made and paid for improvements and I am reimbursing them by lowering their monthly rent. 

I own a property where I rent out the lower apartment while my wife and I live in the upstairs one.

Your deal was underwritten using a 5-year hold period, with a conservative average rental growth of 1.7% and  average expense growth of 5.8%.