In the course of one year a house typically won't increase or decrease materially.

It appears to me that your partner believes that the rehab budget should only be $20k--I don't believe he sees the same value for expenditures beyond that level or he wouldn't propose to decrease his contribution beyond that. 

Generally your rents increase and problems decrease the further west and north you go.  

Sanders will increase gov't spending in a depression, he's Keynesian.Clinton will decrease public spending in a depression, she's a neo-liberal.Trump, who knows.

We have been successful in adding value to these units, decreasing expenses and increasing cash flow.  

The comps over the last 4 years have seen property in this particular community of 500 condos decrease by about 15% as newer, bigger construction goes up all around.

I tend to only look at this stuff at tax time and promptly forget it in between, but if memory serves, if you make $100k or less, you can use $25k in passive losses to offset active income, with that amount decreasing to zero at $150k. 

You will have to increase rents and decrease expenses somehow and very often this could mean doing some kind of renovation work to add separate metering for certain utilities. 3.  

Watch the mls for price decreases on distressed houses and write offers on them.

Also, I was wondering if it is a good idea to start to investing in real estate now or should I just focus on decreasing my student loan debt?