In my own experience, when a tenant needs 2 jobs (not 2 people have 1 job each) just to make rent standards will ensure frequent repeated late rent payments.Consistent long paying jobs and income history is more indicative of stable rent collections.Keep looking.  

But knowing its value is key for taxes.IMPROVEMENT VALUE:This is the value of all the upgrades you make to your property – like a new roof or an updated kitchen.These improvements can be depreciated, which means tax savings for you.3115:Filing this form can allow you to claim missed depreciation from past years.Basically you are letting the IRS know that you are moving from the standard deduction to an accelerated deduction.RECAPTURE:It's payback time!

My cleaners handle it for me which is standard in my market and the markup to drain, fill and clean is only around $25 on top of the cleaning fee if I am not mistaken.  

They now have an exemption process, not sure of the exact standards for it but I exempted my ADU recently.

Nothing different than Brandon Turner's "No money down" book I guess...Concepts definitely aren't new and 95% of deals still require some cash, but just like Brandon Turner's book it simply lays out some alternative options to your standard "go get a loan from the bank" buying/selling real estate methods.

Assuming you are in the 22% - 24% federal tax bracket for most of your income, your tax would be about $76,000(disregarding standard/itemized deducitons and other income).If you can somehow show rental losses = $300,000, you would get a refund of her federal taxes and potentially state taxes also.

When I have done new construction between $500k-$1M in cost the contractor asked for 5% upfront, to be reimbursed at the draw that completes framing, and this was fairly standard in its market. 

I can give you an example in my market here in Cbus for SFH 1,200 sqft:Roof - $7k to $9k Siding - $9k Windows - $450/window labor + material Flooring - $5/sqft Paint - $3k to $4kStandard Kitchen - $7k Standard bathroom - $5k This is just a general idea from what I am seeing. 

Bloomfield does have high rents however there a pockets that are still not up to the standard yet.

In my opinion, the short answer is to use your cash and refinance it into a 'standard' loan if you are going to rent it or sell it when you are done.