what are some legal ways to reduce my rental imcome?

If you are a conservative person and want to reduce risk, normally that comes with spending a little more.  

If a licensed agent wants a commission, go out and earn it. 

This is where I lose my way and why I'm trying to reduce expenses related to cc. 

Depending on how tight the market is in your area you can, at times, get them to pay you more than what they believe the "market value" is but at times (when their money is tight) they will reduce what they will pay (and, once again, tough noogies to the landlord).We were able to increase the rent on our one Section 8 rental (when we participated in this program) by (gasp!)

.- A young gun willing to work his *** off to earn your permanent life-long loyalty.

That's incentive enough to report erroneous expenses to reduce my MAGI as I may reap the benefits. 

This is a very interesting discussion for me as a Realtor and an investor^^As a Realtor in the city of SF, yes arguably the "craziest" market in the US at the moment, I have to admit that having a proven lender in your team and reducing-if not removing- contingencies are the the most important things I need to work on when working with buyers.

When you first started investing did you have earned income?

Those who invest in physical property to earn money as rent must also make themselves available to tenants and manage potential problems within the building, such as conflicts between tenants or legal disputes over damage to the property.