I am buying my first property for rental investment. As per the rules of the lender since I am more than 50 miles away it can qualify as second home. This gives me interest rate of around 3.1% versus as an investment property it is 4%. I am planning to take second home option because of the significant interest rate savings

I will be renting it out all the time, so as per IRS rules its my understanding that for tax purposes I can qualify it as investment property. If that's true then I can deduct mortgage interest, any repairs etc as business expenses and can even carry over the loss (if rent - expense < 0) to deduct from other income. 

Am I understanding correctly, is there anything I should be aware of or ask the lender?