It seems to me that most properties end up showing a paper loss due to depreciation.  

I find it amazing that only 2.1% change in home ownership was this catastrophic. And, of course, it could never happen again. LolHome ownership has never been 100% in the United States. Many people think that the vast...

If he can complete the renovation for $30,000 in 6 months, and a contractor can complete the renovation for $50,000 in 2 months... you have to look at the rent loss, holding costs, and where your husbands time could have been spent in those extra months.Do you have the funds/ability to do multiple projects at once?

The goal of investing in real estate is to generate a yield, not generate a loss.

@Ryan E. what you are suggesting about waiting till it appreciates to $800k is the kind of logic that contributed to a lot of people’s losses in the last RE crash and, for that matter, many losing gamblers.

Not to mention "additional insureds" can't collect a check when there is a loss, they only get liability protection (legal defense) in the event of a liability claim.This is an easy fix: You get your insurance broker to issue a policy in your title holding entities name as a named insured and then list the old owners name (the person on the mortgage) as a co-named insured with the acronym "ATIMA" out beside it.

.  :-)  Income was tax deferred because depreciation, expenses, etc. were written off against the income resulting in a  paper loss.  

Sorry to hear about your losses.  

, or just taking some of their investment off the table (risk reduction), generating a partial taxable event to be used again operating loss carry forwards, etc. 

Get a $5k deductible and protect yourself against total loss.