There are some key limitations that are important:Passive losses can only offset passive income.Up to $25,000 in passive rental losses may be deducted against non-passive income if the investor actively participates and their modified adjusted gross income is below $100,000.Unused passive losses are carried forward to future tax years.Here’s an IRS article that further discusses the rules: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p9251031 ExchangesThis strategy allows investors to defer capital gains tax when they sell a property if they invest the sale proceeds into a “like-kind” property.

If given a choice between one paid-in-full property and two identical properties with 50% leverage, the latter will always out perform in the long run.  

Our strategy has evolved as markets and conditions have changed as well as our own place in life and we constantly check ourselves and make adjustments.

Pete is tough.First, I would adjust your mindset.

The past few years have shown us that relying on historical data without adjusting for current and projected trends can lead to significant shortfalls in underwriting.

If you do calculate make sure you add a adjustment after you file the tax return if needed.Can you do budgets, forecast? 

In that case, a premium can help discourage back-to-back bookings or at least bring in more revenue that could help with operational costs....While a premiumcan be put in place so that adjacent days are less attractive to guests, there's no guarantee that guests won't book these days, and your regular listing maximum price will still be in effect (though that can be adjusted with Date Specific Overrides).

They were quick to pay when repairs had to be done and their in-house adjusters were on point.  

I'd love to hear about your experiences and see whether my expectations just needs to be adjusted.

I would use a service such as vacationrentaldesk.com for this.A direct booking is no more risky than a booking through VRBO or Airbnb; they aren’t verifying identity, either.In fact, my own company has taken thousands of reservations over 19 years, and we don’t verify identity.