More details about me.Currently, living in Japan but in the process of heading back to the States.I am 35 years old, married with 2 little ones.

The tax payer must be consistent throughout the exchange.  

Mark, Are you married to SFH?

If I loaned you $100 and asked you to pay me back next week and I charged you $1 in interest for that, then regardless of what you used that loan for, I should declare that $1 in interest on my tax return.A taxpayer's need to declare income is not negated by the lack of a 1099.If you took the money your friends and family as a personal loan, then contributed all of it to your business entity, you could then use the Interest Tracing rules to deduct all or part of the interest (depending on how much you used for investing in your entity).Good luck and happy investing!

Then there is the transfer tax, Pay it going into your LLC, again when coming out to refi, again when going back in after refi, etc... it can get very expensive.

My wife knows this, she married me after all.

I understand that the small tax payer safe harbor is applied on a building by building basis.

I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the mistakes I made in my past and where I'd be now if I'd made different decisions then.First and foremost, I never would have married my first husband.  

When the property has been your primary residence and you have lived in it for 2 out of the 5 years prior to sale you are allowed to exempt the first 250K (500K if married) in profit tax free.  

I recently got married and am looking to move out of our current rental and purchase our first house.I hope to meet and talk to as many of you as possible as I continue to learn and begin my REI journey.Cheers!