He will have strong rental cashflow and substantial equity gain from the forced appreciation as well as neighborhood growth and increased demand.

Happy to offer advice/ share experiences as well as looking to broaden my own knowledge base and increase my portfolio. looking foreword to making new connections and possibly even a deal or two.

I'm worried this will cause a large "increase" in income for 2017 and a large "loss/deduction" in 2018.

@Lane Kawaoka Overall, this is a stable rental market with slow rent increases (lots of supply).

My personal residence has increased in price in the last few years and you probably know this doesn't occur often in Japan.

Your IRA makes money from that property's rental proceeds as well as the possibility of appreciation instead of stock or mutual fund dividends and increases in value.  

Again, more options to attract good tenants.  

When you buy an apartment complex you look for ways to increase that NOI which in turn increases the value of the property  (AKA forced appreciation). 

And how big of a DMM list you think is good to start with to increase my probability of a getting a response and getting quality leads?

One thing that attracted me was that everyday is different.