On 1-4 residential this is true if the bank is conversative or is selling to Freddie Mac which requires 2 year landlord experience which is documented by having a rental on your tax returns for 2 full years.If a borrower can find a direct seller servicer to Fannie Mae, one with minimal lending overlays on their guidelines, can use rental income to qualify immediately with out any landlord experience however this income is ultimately up to the underwriter's final discretion.

Time to build the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

Under the "Learn" tab at the top of the page you'll find a series of "how-to" guides, including"The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to REI".

Smaller ones will often just give it out over the phone, especially if you ask "I need to verify info provided by an applicant" rather than if you ask "Can you tell me how much so-and-so makes".You might want to check out this thread:  Ultimate tenant screening guide.  

I think a great way to begin using BP is to read the Bigger Pockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing as Josh and Brandon did a great job with it.

Our ultimate goal is to use our real estate cash flow to fund early retirement in 15 years.

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and don't forget to set up your Keyword Alerts!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and don't forget to set up your Keyword Alerts!

So ultimately it's your choice on what you want to do or are willing to do.

Commissioner covers this and ultimately allowed someone with a full-time job to take the home office deduction against their rentals.