When you put a pencil to your numbers, are you getting a good return on your investment.

Im currently trying to get into short term returns and eventually get some long term (rental) properties.

I get around 25% of my negative rents back on my tax returns.

Unless you have extensive knowledge and connections with rehabbing, financing, market analysis, and just general real estate investing, I think you are setting yourself up for failure trying to break in to the downtown renovation game right now.For a beginning investor, I would rather you start out with something safe that has a strong possibility of bringing you a quick return rather than play the dice and hope it hits in time, and that advice has nothing to do with being my competition.

Although I would be moving to Florida, there's a decent chance that I could return to the DC-area after three-to-five years.

However, the SEC, especially in this gruesome economic climate, is always on the look out for any investment offering better returns than what can be attained through the stock market.

Can the return still be high?

I just returned from a closing (not a double), and asked my beloved closer about the topic.

I look like a little girl who is asking for a candy.

The benefits are that you don't have to actively be involved managing the property, it provides both monthly cash returns (based on the rents it gets) as well as equity growth and appreciation, and it is much easier to do an even-money exchange into a TIC.