Even if I were able to carry losses forward, it can only be used to offset rental income, not ordinary income.

The answer is "IT DEPENDS" - just like most answers to tax questions.The IRS permits a deduction for business expenses that are "ordinary and necessary" in the course of the business and that enables you to generate revenue.Some questions I would ask if you were my client:1. 

Just a heads up that you will be paying ordinary income tax rates on flips, not lower capital gains tax rates.

Regarding the DIY approach:- Background checks can run you $20-$50 each from platforms like tenantbackgroundsearch.com, American Apt Owners Assoc., e-renter, rentprep and more- Dozens of platforms, listed here, allow you to post your rental listings online for a range of fees depending on subscription length, account type, and features requested- Run comps using 3rd party sites to see what recent rental apartments have rented for (not to be confused with active rental listings), & price your rental unit accordingly- Lastly, hire a professional photographer or cash in a favor from a friend with a good camera!

You still have a $200k capital gain (of which $100k is depreciation recapture) and you also have a $100k ordinary loss from those suspended losses.

Your payments will constitute an ordinary annuity.

the benefit for the owner is they get the interest up front in the form of higher price and there is also tax advantages with interest income taxed at ordinary income rate as opposed to principal pay down taxed at capital gains rates.so what am i missing???

I would increase that by 10% to cover ordinary fluctuations and then include a clause in their lease that says, "Rent includes utilities up to $165 per month.

I read something on the New York Times (Take this with a grain of salt) but the average person knows like 600 people and the average american moves every 7 years or something like that, so in theory, you know or know of about 87 people that move every year.

After reading Multi-Family millionaire I've personally come to the conclusion that one of the best first moves an investor can make is picking up a good "all american" (B neighborhood, working class demographic, 2/1 or 3/2 that just works and will always work)In the famous words of InvestwithAce "If you got 100, spend 50, if you got 50, spend 20, and if you have 20 save up more cash."