What I'm doing in looking for a potential partnership is getting my hands dirty.

I buy my cabinets second hand for my low end rentals.

On one hand, having the mortgage interest deduction against the rental income seems like a positive (but then closing costs seem to negate that benefit.)

Whoever invented this and buried it in the T&C’s is my idol and if anyone knows who this is please let me know, as I will fly anywhere to shake his hand.

You need to have a solid foundation of knowledge going into a situation like this or you could end up with a big mess on your hands.

@Adrian Gonzalez, no, we have done a handful that we did occupy while remodeling (for the capital gains exclusion), a number of fix and flip deals, and the bulk of the deals have been long term holds.  

On the other hand, what if you bought a property that made you $100.00/month?

You need to decide if you want to learn to do your own taxes (which is a positive thing to learn) or if it would be better to pay the couple hundred dollars and have someone else do it - and focus your efforts on learning something else investing specific.For me personally, I appreciated doing my own taxes for a handful of years until it started getting complicated enough that I decided that someone else could do it better than me. 

Cant wait to get this Central Park Condo in the Spokane Valley finished and in the hands of a new buyer!

It's also not a "job" where business is handed to you (some brokerages will give you a leads for a hefty split of your commission, but they will expect you to be working full time as an agent).