It works great for my building in Boston where the tenants are mostly 20 -30 year old young professionals.

My non-professional understanding of basis:Your basis is the purchase price, including acquisition costs (except any that may be deductible as expenses in the current year) plus the amount you spend on the property to put it into rent ready condition.

I'd also include professional fees..accountant and legal as well and a monthly repair and maintence exp as well.

Unless of course you will be primarily attracting the young, educated and professional crowd.

Insist that the site visit and data analysis portions of teh Phase I be done by an "environmental professional" as defined in EPA All Appropriate inquiries regulation and the ASTM E1527 standard.

How can you or your professional network help me with entity structuring, retirement/estate planning, business analysis, etc.?

I am not an attorney or tax professional and below only represent my personal opinion.

Now that my kids are older, I want to be professional about it, have fun(meet challenges), and use it as a way to achieve financial independence.

Yes you will still order a professional title search in the end but you still will want to know that a title is clear of issues BEFORE you pick up the phone and call your investors.

Interesting article.Personally, I'd steer clear of any sort of funding - there are enough places in Europe (for the gamblers) or Asia (for the growth-oriented) to be able to avoid any sort of debt.