The irs might send you a bill, but no one is going to drag you into a debtors hearing and order you to empty your pockets in front of a judge.

Interest & depreciation are treated as an expense, and exchanging defers taxes.The key is to have confidence in your ability to create a series of great deals to build your portfolio.

LEADS = SEO (DMM/PPC/...) + CREDIBILITY

Eg: time left on lease; ability to repurpose building.3)Capital improvements: When I see a property that ‘underwent extensive renovations’ during what appears to be the middle of the existing lease, who paid for it?

Doing the work + Knowing the material prices + Over a period of time = Ability to estimate accuratelyUNLESS...you are like me and somehow think you can do the work faster/better than you really can - lol - or your superman vision just wasn't working up to par that day (my excuse).  

Because of the layout of the existing walls, and the routing of existing plumbing, ducts & electric, I knew it would be a fairly simple and inexpensive operation (again--I only knew this because I visited the property)...after the work was done, it transformed the place from a negative cashflow property (that mostly only appealed to college kids) into a cashflow positive property that appeals to couples, couples with a child, well-off single people, and pairs of housemates.The "physical assessment" and the ability to see the potential of a property is a skill that can't be easily learned via books, youtube videos, etc.

Unfortunately, having no debt of any kind probably hurts your ability to qualify for a loan. 

You will need to include those in your numbers and also make sure that the HOA does not have any rental restrictions limiting your ability to rent it out

I've been in this business a while, and without the ability to do the minor things yourself, boy, it would almost be cost prohibitive to be a smaller, mom and pop, residential income property business.

If you made the note requiring payment being made to a servicer initially your ability to assign or change addresses could become more of an issue.