It's not a regular expense, but you need to plan on it to be prepared.

They will be learning from you, so prepare to take the lead.

Now I feel like I am better prepared to get a good return on my first investment. 

Had an electrician that did that, he did the work and paid him as a third party where the owner cleared the payment.When we asked he refused.Told him that we would send a 1099 in with his name and business name and date of his corporate filing with an annotation that the tax payer refused to complete the form or give SSN.Then told him, to prepare for an audit.

Figure I may as well be prepared, just on the one in million chance it all does! 

Their minimum ROI is 20%. we are directly working w a 'broker' who is doing the connections for us,  & is also helping us find properties, plus preparing the funding request after we've done our property estimates.

I was (and still am) a licensed broker, but broker's training, while imparting valuable real estate knowledge, does little if anything to prepare one for the reality of being an investor/landlord.

However, it just limits the losses deductible to any income in a given year.I recommend having an accountant prepare your first year return at least to be sure basis is calculated correctly.

I assign one board for my architect, one board for engineering, bid board, schedule board, todo board. each board i could assign just one or a whole team. i just structure it well so i could move cards from step to step. say on my bid board, i have tabs like bid searches, bid walk date, bid prepared, bid review, bid submitted, bid rejected, bid approved.i make cards for each bid then just move them around. mobile friendly, too friendly.

I see reverse mortgages as more like the "get your refund right now" deal the tax preparation companies offer.