This decreases your profit. 

If this was conventional You'd probably just subtract your rent from the profit in the way that had the minimum tax implications.

The overarching condition is profit at this point.

We are debating between renting this home or selling to get into another deal, comparable homes in the area are selling for $120-130k leading us to believe we can profit about 50-60k, but we think we could rent for around 950 a month, netting about $250 of cashflow after expenses if we decided not to sell.

In my opinion they don't make sense as profitable rentals in today's market.

all those things considered... and of course I sold them right away mainly to Germans for 50 to 60k apiece so we took our 15 to 25k profits and did that for a year or so then went to Atlanta and was getting smokin deals there I think I bought 54 in one year at courthouse there then the big hedge funds came in and kicked us to the curb.. we kept those though and then rolled them all up and sold them all at once to a HEDGE fund.. doubled our money in 18 months on those.

Tying up $400k in cash to profit a lousy $750 a month is a poor return.  

Maybe even some profit share too.

My reasoning is based on average historical total profits (cash flow+equity gains) LA was #1 in the nation since 2000.

I know I'll sound like a Millennial Socialist but after 25+ years of seeing it, the singular focus on profits & butt kissing at the expense of employee well being is a case study in toxicity.